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THE  COMEDY  OF  HUMAN  LIFE 
By  H.  DE  BALZAC 


SCENES   FROM   POLITICAL  LIFE 


THE   DEPUTY  OF  ARCIS 


BALZAC'S     NOVELS. 

Translated  by  Miss  K.  P.  Wormeley. 

A  Iready  l*tibHshed : 
PERE     GORIOT. 
DUCHESSE     DE     LANGEAIS. 
RISE  AND  FALL  OF  CESAR  BIROTTEAU. 
EUGENIE     GRANDET. 
COUSIN     PONS. 
THE     COUNTRY     DOCTOR. 
THE     TWO     BROTHERS. 

THE  ALKAHEST  (La  Recherche  de  1' Absolu). 
MODESTE    MIGNON. 

THE  MAGIC    SKIN  (La  Peau  de  Chagrin). 
COUSIN     BETTE. 
LOUIS     LAMBERT. 
BUREAUCRACY  (Les  Employes). 
SERAPHITA. 

SONS    OF    THE    SOIL   (Les  Paysans). 
FAME    AND    SORROW    (Chat-qui-pelote). 
THE   LILY   OF   THE   VALLEY. 
URSULA. 

AN   HISTORICAL   MYSTERY. 
ALBERT    SAVARUS. 
BALZAC  :    A   MEMOIR. 
PIERRETTE. 
THE    CHOUANS. 
LOST    ILLUSIONS. 
A  GREAT  MAN  OF   THE    PROVINCES  IN 

PARIS. 
THE  BROTHERHOOD  OF   CONSOLATION. 
THE    VILLAGE    RECTOR. 
MEMOIRS    OF    TWO     YOUNG    MARRIED 

WOMEN. 
CATHERINE    DE'    MEDICI. 
LUCIEN   DE    RUBEMPRE. 
FERRAGUS,  CHIEF  OF  THE  DEVORANTS. 
A   START   IN   LIFE. 
THE    MARRIAGE    CONTRACT. 
BilATRIX. 

A  DAUGHTER   OF   EVE. 
THE   GALLERY   OF   ANTIQUITIES. 
GOBSECK. 

THE   LESSER  BOURGEOISIE. 
JUANA   (Les  Maranas). 
THE   DEPUTY   OF   ARCIS. 


ROBERTS  BROTHERS,  Publishers,  Boston. 


HONORE    Dh    BALZAC 


TRANSLATED    BY 


KATHARINE    PRESCOTT    WORMELEY 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis 


ROBERTS     BROTHERS 

3     SOMERSET     STREET 

BOSTON 

1896 


GIFT  op 

Copyrighty  1896, 
By  Roberts  Brothers. 


All  rights  reserved. 


John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge,  U.S.A. 


CONTENTS. 


I. 

II. 
III. 
IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 
VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XTI. 
XIII. 


Part  Jirst. 

THE  ELECTION. 

Page 

All  Elections  begin  with  a  Bustle    .    .  1 

Revolt  of  a  Liberal  Rotten  Borough  .  11 

Opposition  defines  itself 20 

The  First  Parliamentary  Tempest  .  .  32 
The  Perplexities  of  the  Government  in 

Arcis 41 

The  Campaign  of  1814  from  the  Hosiery 

Point  of  View 52 

The  Beauvisage  Family 61 

In  which  the  Dot,  one  of  the  Heroines 

OF  THIS  History,  appears 67 

A  Stranger 77 

The  Revelations  of  an  Opera  Glass  .  .  91 
In  WHICH  THE  Candidate  begins  to  lose 

Votes 105 

The  Salon  of  Madame  d'Espard     .     .     .  121 

Preface  before  Lettering 137 


96241 


vi  Contents, 

Part  Scconti. 

LETTERS   EXPLANATORY. 

Page 
I.     The   Comte  de   l'Estorade  to  Monsieur 

Marie-Gaston 143 

IL     The  Comtesse  de  l'Estorade  to  Madame 

Octave  de  Camps 148 

III.  The  Comte  de  l'Estorade   to  M.  Marie- 

Gaston  152 

IV.  The    Comtesse    de    l'Estorade   to  Mme. 

Octave  de  Camps 166 

V.  Same  t(5  Same 169 

VI.     Same  to  Same 177 

VII.     Same  to  Same 184 

VIII.     Same  to  Same 190 

IX.     Dorlange  to  Marie-Gaston 194 

X.     Same  to  Same 207 

XL     The    Comtesse   de   l'Estorade    to    Mme. 

Octave  de  Camps 223 

XII.     Dorlange  to  Marie-Gaston 233 

XIIL     Same  to  Same 240 

XIV.     Marie-Gaston     to     the     Comtesse     de 

l'Estorade 259 

XV.     Same   to   Same 270 

XVI.     Same   to   Same 277 


Contents,  vii 

Page 

XVII.     Same  to  Same 286 

XVIIl.     Charles    de   Sallenauve   to  the   Com- 

TESSE  de  l'Estouade 299 

XIX.    Marie-Gaston    to    the    Comtesse    de 

l'Estorade 307 


Part  3E!)irtJ. 
MONSIEUR  DE  SALLENAUVE. 

I.     The  Sorrows  of  Monsieur  de  Trailles  .  309 
II.     A  Conversation  between  Eleven  o'clock 

and  Midnight 321 

III.  A  Minister's  Morning 330 

IV.  A  Catechism 337 

V.     Children 352 

VI.     Curiosity  that  camp:  within  an   Ace  of 

being  Fatal 374 

VII.    The  Way  to  Manage  Political  Intrigues  406 

VIII.     Some  Old  Acquaintances 429 

IX.    In  the  Chamber 455 


THE    DEPUTY    OF    ARCIS, 


PART    FIRST. 
THE  ELECTION. 


ALL    ELECTIONS    BEGIN    WITH    A    BUSTLE. 

Before  beginning  to  describe  an  election  in  the 
provinces,  it  is  proper  to  state  that  the  town  of  Arcis- 
sur-Aube  was  not  the  theatre  of  the  events  here 
rehited. 

The  arrondissement  of  Arcis  votes  at  Bar-surAnbe, 
which  is  forty  miles  from  Arcis ;  consequently  there  is 
no  deputy  from  Arcis  in  the  Chamber. 

Discretion,  required  in  a  history  of  contemporaneous 
manners  and  morals,  dictates  this  precautionary  word. 
It  is  rather  an  ingenious  contrivance  to  make  the 
description  of  one  town  the  frame  for  events  which 
happened  in  another ;  and  several  times  already  in  the 
course  of  the  Comedy  of  Human  Life,  this  means  has 
been  employed  in  spite  of  its  disadvantages,  which 
consist  chiefly  in  making  the  frame  of  as  much  impor- 
tance as  the  canvas. 


L 


2  The  Deputy  of  Areis. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  month  of  April,  1839,  about  ten 
o'clock  in  tbe  morning,  the  salon  of  Madame  Marion, 
widow  of  a  former  receiver-general  of  the  department  of 
the  Aube,  presented  a  singular  appearance.  All  the 
furniture  had  been  removed  except  the  curtains  to  the 
windows,  the  ornaments  on  the  fireplace,  the  chan- 
delier, and  the  tea-table.  An  Aubusson  carpet,  taken 
up  two  weeks  before  the  usual  time,  obstructed  the 
steps  of  the  portico,  and  the  floor  had  been  violently 
rubbed  and  polished,  though  without  increasing  its 
usual  brightness.  All  this  was  a  species  of  domestic 
premonition  concerning  the  result  of  the  elections 
which  were  about  to  take  place  over  the  whole  surface 
of  France.  Often  things  are  as  spiritually  intelligent  as 
men,  —  an  argument  in  favor  of  the  Occult  Sciences. 

The  old  man-servant  of  Colonel  Giguet,  Madame 
Marion's  brother,  had  just  finished  dusting  the  room ; 
the  chamber-maid  and  the  cook  were  carrying,  with 
an  alacrity  that  denoted  an  enthusiasm  equal  to  their 
attachment,  all  the  chairs  of  the  house,  and  piling  them 
up  in  the  garden,  where  the  trees  were  already  unfold- 
ing their  leaves,  through  which  the  cloudless  blue  of 
the  sky  was  visible.  The  springlike  atmosphere  and 
sun  of  May  allowed  the  glass  door  and  the  two  win- 
dows of  the  oblong  salon  to  be  kept  open. 

An  old  lady,  Madame  Marion  herself,  now  ordered 
the  two  maids  to  place  the  chairs  at  one  end  .of  the 
salon,  four  rows  deep,  leaving  between  the  rows  a 
space  of  about  three  feet.  When  this  was  done,  each 
row  presented  a  front  of  ten  chairs,  all  of  divers 
species.  A  line  of  chairs  was  also  placed  along  the 
wall,   under  the  windows  and  before  the  glass  door. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  3 

At  the  other  end  of  the  salon,  facing  the  forty  chairs, 
Madame  Marion  placed  three  arm-chairs  behind  the 
tea-table,  which  was  covered  with  a  green  cloth,  on 
which    she  placed  a  bell. 

Old'^lonel  Giguet  arrived  on  this  battle-field  at  the 
moment  when  his  sister  bethought  herself  of  filling  the 
empty  spaces  on  either  side  of  the  fireplace  with 
benches  from  the  antechamber,  disregarding  the  bald- 
ness of  their  velvet  covers  which  had  done  good  ser- 
vice for  twenty-four  years. 

'*  We  can  seat  seventy  persons,"  she  said  to  her 
brother  triumphantly. 

"God  grant  that  we  may  have  seventy  friends!" 
replied  the  colonel. 

''  If,  after  receiving  every  night,  for  twenty-four 
years,  the  whole  society  of  Arcis-sur-Aube,  a  single 
one  of  my  regular  visitors  fails  us  on  this  occasion  —  " 
began  the  old  lady,  in  a  threatening  manner. 

"Pooh,  pooh!"  replied  the  colonel,  interrupting  his 
sister,  "  I  'U  name  you  ten  who  cannot  and  ought  not 
to  come.  First,"  he  said,  beginning  to  count  on 
his  fingers,  "  Antonin  Goulard,  sub-prefect,  for 
one  ;  Frederic  Marest,  procureur-du-roi,  there  's  two ; 
Monsieur  Olivier  Vinet,  his  substitute,  three;  Mon- 
sieur Marteuer,  examining-judge,  four;  the  justice  of 
peace  —  " 

"  But  I  am  not  so  silly,"  said  the  old  lady,  interrupt- 
ing her  brother  in  her  turn,  "  as  to  expect  office-holders 
to  come  to  a  meeting  the  object  of  which  is  to  give 
another  deputy  to  tlie  Opposition.  For  all  that,  Anto- 
nin Goulard,  Simon's  comrade  and  schoolmate,  would 
be  very  well  pleased  to  see  him  a  deputy  because  — " 


k 


4  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

*'  Come,  sister,  leave  our  own  'business  of  politics  to 
us  men.     Where  is  Simon  ?  " 

"  He  is  dressing,"  she  answered.  "  He  was  wise  not 
to  breakfast,  for  he  is  very  nervous.  It  is  queer  that, 
though  he  is  in  the  habit  of  speaking  in  cdurt,  he 
dreads  this  meeting  as  if  he  were  certain  to  meet 
enemies." 

"  Faith  !  I  have  often  had  to  face  masked  batteries, 
and  my  soul  —  I  won't  say  my  body  —  never  quailed  ; 
but  if  I  had  to  stand  there,"  said  the  old  soldier,  point- 
ing to  the  tea-table,  "  anfcl  face  forty  bourgeois  gaping 
at  me,  their  eyes  fixed  on  mine,  and  expecting  sono- 
rous and  correct  phrases,  my  shirt  would  be  wringing 
wet  before  I  could  get  out  a  word." 

'^And  yet,  my  dear  father,"  said  Simon  Giguet, 
entering  from  the  smaller  salon,  ''you  really  must 
make  that  effort  for  me ;  for  if  there  is  a  man  in  the 
department  of  the  Aube  whose  voice  is  all-powerful  it 
is  assuredly  you.     In  1815  — " 

"In  1815,"  said  the  little  old  man,  who  was  won- 
derfully well  preserved,  ''I  did  not  have  to  speak; 
I  simply  wrote  out  a  little  proclamation  which  brought 
us  two  thousand  men  in  twenty-four  hours.  But  it  is  a 
very  different  thing  putting  my  name  to  a  paper  which 
is  read  by  a  department,  and  standing  up  before  a 
meeting  to  make  a  speech.  Napoleon  himself  failed 
there;  at  the  18th  Brumaire  he  talked  nothing  but 
nonsense  to  the  Five  Hundred." 

"But,  my  dear  father,"  urged  Simon,  "it  concerns 
my  Hfe,  my  fortune,  my  happiness.  Fix  your  eyes  on 
some  one  person  and  think  you  are  talking  to  him,  and 
you  '11  get  through  all  right." 


The  Deputy  of  Areis.  5 

''  Heavens  !  "  cried  Madame  Marion,  *'  I  am  only  an 
old  woman,  but  under  such  circumstances  and  knowing 
what  depends  on  it,  I  —  oh  !  I  should  be  eloquent ! " 

"  Too  eloquent,  perhaps,"  said  the  colonel.  ''  To  go 
beyond  the  mark  is  not  attaining  it.  But  why  make  so 
much  of  all  this  ?  "  he  added,  looking  at  his  son.  '*  It  is 
only  within  the  last  two  days  you  have  taken  up  this 
candidacy  of  ideas ;  well,  suppose  you  are  not  nomi- 
nated, —  so  much  the  worse  for  Arcis,  that's  all." 

These  words  were  in  keeping  with  the  whole  life  of 
him  who  said  them.  Colonel  Giguet  was  one  of  the 
most  respected  officers  in  the  Grand  Army,  the  found- 
ation of  his  character  being  absolute  integrity  joined  to 
extreme  delicacy.  Never  did  he  put  himself  forward  ; 
favors,  such  as  he  received,  sought  him.  For  this 
reason  he  remained  eleven  years  a  mere  captain  of 
the  artillery  of  the  Guard,  not  receiving  the  rank  of 
major  until  1814.  His  almost  fanatical  attachment  to 
Napoleon  forbade  his  taking  service  under  the  Bourbons 
after  the  first  abdication.  In  fact,  his  devotion  in 
1815  was  such  that  he  would  have  been  banished 
with  so  many  others  if  the  Comte  de  Gondreville  had 
not  contrived  to  have  his  name  effaced  from  the  ordi- 
nance and  put  on  the  retired  list  with  a  pension,  and 
the  rank  of  colonel. 

Madame  Marion,  nee  Giguet,  had  another  brother  who 
was  colonel  of  gendarmerie  atTroyes,  whom  she  followed 
to  that  town  at  an  earlier  period.  It  was  there  that 
she  married  Monsieur  Marion,  receiver-general  of  the 
Aube,  who  also  had  had  a  brotlier,  the  chief-justice  of 
an  imperial  court.  While  a  mere  barrister  at  Arcis 
this  young  man  had  lent  his  name  during  the  Terror  to 


6  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

the  famous  Malin  de  I'Aube,  the  representative  of  the 
people,  in  order  to  hold  possession  of  the  estate  of 
Gondreville.  [See  "  An  Historical  Mystery."]  Conse- 
quently, all  the  support  and  influence  of  Malin,  now 
become  count  and  senator,  was  at  the  service  of  the 
Marion  family.  The  barrister's  brother  was  made 
receiver-general  of  the  department,  at  a  period  when, 
far  from  having  forty  applicants  for  one  place,  the 
government  was  fortunate  in  getting  any  one  to  accept 
such  a  slippery  office. 

Marion,  the  receiver-general,  inherited  the  fortune  of 
his  brother  the  chief -justice,  and  Madame  Marion  that 
of  her  brother  the  colonel  of  gendarmerie.  In  1814, 
the  receiver-general  met  with  reverses.  He  died  when 
the  Empire  died ;  but  his  widow  managed  to  gather 
fifteen  thousand  francs  a  year  from  the  wreck  of  his 
accumulated  fortunes.  The  colonel  of  gendarmerie 
had  left  his  property  to  his  sister  on  learning  the 
marriage  of  his  brother  the  artillery  officer  to  the 
daughter  of  a  rich  banker  of  Hamburg.  It  is  well 
known  what  a  fancy  all  Europe  had  for  the  splendid 
troopers  of  Napoleon! 

In  1814,  Madame  Marion,  half-ruined,  returned  to 
Arcis,  her  native  place,  where  she  bought,  on  the 
Grande-Place,  one  of  the  finest  houses  in  the  town. 
Accustomed  to  receive  much  company  at  Troyes,  where 
the  receiver-general  reigned  supreme,  she  now  opened 
her  salon  to  the  notabilities  of  the  liberal  party  in 
Arcis.  A  woman  accustomed  to  the  advantages  of 
salon  royalty  does  not  easily  renounce  them.  Vanity 
is  the  most  tenacious  of  all  habits. 

Bonapartist,    and    afterwards    a    liberal  —  for,    by 


i 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  7 

strangest  of  metamorphoses,  the  soldiers  of  Napoleon 
became  ahnost  to  a  man  enamoured  of  the  constitu- 
tional system  —  Colonel  Giguet  was,  during  the  Resto- 
ration, the  natural  president  of  the  governing  committee 
of  Arcis,  which  consisted  of  the  notary  Grevin,  his 
son-in-law  Beauvisage,  and  Varlet  junior,  tlie  chief 
physician  of  Arcis,  brother-in-law  of  Grevin,  and  a 
few  other  liberals. 

''  If  our  dear  boy  is  not  nominated,"  said  Madame 
Marion,  having  first  looked  into  the  antechamber  and 
garden  to  make  sure  that  no  one  overheard  her,  ''he 
cannot  have  Mademoiselle  Beauvisage ;  his  success  in 
this  election  means  a  marriage  with  Cecile." 

"  Cecile !  "  exclaimed  the  old  man,  opening  his  eyes 
very  wide  and  looking  at  his  sister  in  stupefaction. 

"  There  is  no  one  but  you  in  the  whole  department 
who  would  forget  the  dot  and  the  expectations  of 
Mademoiselle  Beauvisage,"  said  his  sister. 

"  She  is  the  richest  heiress  in  the  department  of  the 
Aube,"  said  Simon  Giguet. 

"  But  it  seems  to  me,"  said  the  old  soldier,  "  that  my 
son  is  not  to  be  despised  as  a  match  ;  he  is  your  heir,  he 
already  has  something  from  his  mother,  and  I  expect 
to  leave  him  something  better  than  a  dry  name." 

"  All  that  put  together  won't  make  thirty  thousand 
francs  a  year,  and  suitors  are  already  coming  forward 
who  have  as  much  as  that,  not  counting  their  posi- 
tion," returned  Madame  Marion. 

"  And?  "  asked  the  colonel. 

"  They  have  been  refused." 

"  Then  what  do  the  Beauvisage  family  want?  "  said 
the  colonel,  looking  alternately  at  his  son  and  sister. 


8  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

It  may  seem  extraordinary  that  Colonel  Giguet,  the 
brother  of  Madame  Marion  in  whose  house  the  society 
of  Arcis  had  met  for  twenty-four  years,  and  whose 
salon  was  the  echo  of  all  reports,  all  scandals,  and  all 
the  gossip  of  the  department  of  the  Aube,  —  a  good  deal 
of  it  being  there  manufactured,  —  should  be  ignorant  of 
facts  of  this  nature.  But  his  ignorance  will  seem 
natural  when  we  mention  that  this  noble  relic  of  the 
Napoleonic  legions  went  to  bed  at  night  and  rose  in  the 
morning  with  the  chickens,  as  all  old  persons  should  do 
if  they  wish  to  live  out  their  lives.  He  was  never 
present  at  the  intimate  conversations  which  went  on 
in  the  salon.  In  the  provinces  there  are  two  sorts  of 
intimate  conversation,  —  one,  which  is  held  officially 
when  all  the  company  are  gathered  together,  playing  at 
cards  or  conversing ;  the  other,  which  simmers^  like  a 
well  made  soup,  when  three  or  four  friends  remain 
around  the  fireplace,  friends  who  can  be  trusted  to  re- 
peat nothing  of  what  is  said  beyond  their  own  limits. 

For  nine  years,  ever  since  the  triumph  of  his  politi- 
cal ideas,  the  colonel  had  lived  almost  entirely  out- 
side of  social  life.  Rising  with  the  sun,  he  devoted 
himself  to  horticulture;  he  adored  flowers,  and  of  all 
flowers  he  best  loved  roses.  His  hands  were  brown 
as  those  of  a  real  gardener;  he  took  care  himself 
of  his  beds.  Constantly  in  conference  with  his  work- 
ing gardener  he  mingled  little,  especially  for  the  last 
two  years,  with  the  life  of  others  ;  of  whom,  indeed,  he 
saw  little.  He  took  but  one  meal  with  the  family, 
namely,  his  dinner ;  for  he  rose  too  early  to  breakfast 
with  his  son  and  sister.  To  his  efforts  we  owe  the 
famous  rose  Giguet,  known  so  well  to  all  amateurs. 


i 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  9 

This  old  man,  who  had  now  passed  into  the  state  of 
a  domestic  fetich,  was  exhibited,  as  we  may  well  sup- 
pose, on  all  extraordinary  occasions.  Certain  families 
enjoy  the  benefit  of  a  demi-god  of  this  kind,  and 
plume  themselves  upon  him  as  they  would  upon  a 
title. 

*'I  have  noticed,"  replied  Madame  Marion  to  her 
brother's  question,  ''that  ever  since  the  revolution  of 
July  Madame  Beauvisage  has  aspired  to  live  in  Paris. 
Obliged  to  stay  here  as  long  as  her  father  lives,  she 
has  fastened  her  ambition  on  a  future  son-in-law,  and 
my  lady  dreams  now  of  the  splendors  and  dignities  of 
political  life." 

''Could  you  love  Cecile?"  said  the  colonel  to  his 
son. 

"Yes,  father." 

"  And  does  she  like  you?" 

"  I  think  so;  but  the  thing  is,  to  please  the  mother 
and  grandfather.  Though  old  Grevin  himself  wants 
to  oppose  my  election,  my  success  would  determine 
Madame  Beauvisage  to  accept  me,  because  she  ex- 
pects to  manage  me  as  she  pleases  and  to  be  minister 
under  my  name." 

"That's  a  good  joke!"  cried  Madame  Marion. 
"What  does  she  take  us  for?" 

"  Whom  has  she  refused?  "  asked  the  colonel. 

"Well,  within  the  last  three  months,  Antonin 
Goulard  and  the  procureur-du-roi^  Frederic  Marest, 
have  received,  so  they  say,  equivocal  answers  which 
mean  anything  —  except  yes.*' 

"  Heavens !  "  cried  the  old  man  throwing  up  his 
arms.     "What  days  we  live   in,  to  be  sure!     Why, 


10  The  Deputy  of  Arcts. 

Lucie  was  the  daughter  of  a  hosier,  and  the  grand- 
daughter of  a  farmer.  Does  Madame  Beauvisage  want 
the  Comte  de  Cinq-Cygne  for  a  son-in-law?" 

"Don't  laugh  at  Madame  Beauvisage,  brother. 
Cecile  is  rich  enough  to  choose  a  husband  anywhere, 
even  in  the  class  to  which  the  Cinq-Cygnes  belong. 
But  there  's  the  bell  announcing  the  electors,  and  I 
disappear  —  regretting  much  I  can't  hear  what  you  are 
all  going  to  say." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  11 


II. 

REVOLT   OF   A    LIBERAL   ROTTEN-BOROUGH. 

Though  1839  is,  politically  speaking,  very  distant 
from  1847,  we  can  still  remember  the  elections  pro- 
duced by  the  Coalition,  an  ephemeral  effort  of  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies  to  realize  the  threat  of  parlia- 
mentary government,  — a  threat  d  la  Cromwell,  which 
without  a  Cromwell  coidd  only  end,  under  a  prince 
"  the  enemy  of  fraud,"  in  the  triumph  of  the  present 
system,  by  which  the  Chambers  and  the  ministers  are 
like  the  wooden  puppets  which  the  proprietor  of  the 
Guignolet  shows  exhibits  to  the  great  satisfaction  of 
wonder-stricken  idlers  in  the  streets. 

The  arrondissement  of  Arcis-sur-Aube  then  found 
itself  in  a  singular  position.  It  supposed  itself  free  to 
choose  its  deputy.  From  1816  to  1836  it  had  always 
elected  one  of  the  heaviest  orators  of  the  Left,  belong- 
ing to  the  famous  seventeen  who  were  called  ''Great 
Citizens "  by  the  liberal  party,  —  namely,  Francois 
Keller,  of  the  house  of  Keller  Bros.,  the  son-in-law  of 
the  Comte  de  Gondreville.  Gondreville,  one  of  the 
most  magnificent  estates  in  France,  is  situated  about  a 
mile  from  Arcis. 

This  banker,  recently  made  count  and  peer  of 
France,  expected,  no  doubt,  to  transfer  to  his  son, 
then  thirty  years  of  age,  his  electoral  succession,  in 


12  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

order  to  make  him  some  day  eligible  for  the  peerage. 
Already  a  major  on  the  staff  and  a  great  favorite  of 
the  prince-royal,  Charles  Keller,  now  a  viscount, 
belonged  to  the  court  party  of  the  citizen-king.  The 
most  brilliant  future  seemed  pledged  to  a  young  man 
enormously  rich,  full  of  energy,  already  remarkable 
for  his  devotion  to  the  new  dynasty,  the  grandson  of 
the  Comte  de  Gondreville,  and  nephew  of  the  Mare- 
chale  de  Carigliano ;  but  this  election,  so  necessary  to 
his  future  prospects,  presented  suddenly  certain  diffi- 
culties to  overcome. 

Since  the  accession  to  power  of  the  bourgeois  class, 
Arcis  had  felt  a  vague  desire  to  show  itself  indepen- 
dent. Consequently,  the  last  election  of  Francois 
Keller  had  been  disturbed  by  certain  republicans, 
whose  red  caps  and  long  beards  had  not,  however, 
seriously  alarmed  the  bourgeois  of  Arcis.  By  can- 
vassing the  country  carefully  the  radical  candidate 
would  be  able  to  secure  some  thirty  or  forty  votes. 
A  few  of  the  townspeople,  humiliated  at  seeing  their 
town  always  treated  as  a  rotten  borough,  joined  the 
democrats,  though  enemies  to  democracy.  In  France, 
under  the  system  of  balloting,  politico-chemical  pro- 
ducts are  formed  in  which  the  laws  of  affinity  are 
reversed. 

Now,  to  elect  young  Keller  in  1839,  after  having 
elected  his  father  for  twenty  years,  would  show  a  mon- 
strous electoral  servitude,  against  which  the  pride  of 
the  newly  enriched  bourgeoisie  revolted,  for  they  felt 
themselves  to  be  fully  worth  either  Monsieur  Malin, 
otherwise  called  Comte  de  Gondreville,  the  Keller  Bros., 
the  Cinq-Cygnes,  or  even,  the  King  of  the  French. 


The  Deputy  of  Areis.  13 

The  numerous  partisans  of  old  Gondreville,  the 
king  of  the  department  of  the  Aube,  were  therefore 
awaiting  some  fresh  proof  of  his  ability,  alread}'  so 
thoroughly  tested,  to  circumvent  this  rising  revolt. 
In  order  not  to  compromise  the  influence  of  his  family 
in  the  arrondissement  of  Arcis,  that  old  statesman 
would  doubtless  propose  for  candidate  some  young 
man  who  could  be  induced  to  accept  an  official  func- 
tion and  then  yield  his  place  to  Charles  Keller,  —  a 
parliamentary  arrangement  which  renders  the  elect  of 
the  people  subject  to  re-election. 

When  Simon  Giguet  sounded  the  old  notary  Gr^vin, 
the  faithful  friend  of  the  Comte  de  Gondreville,  on 
the  subject  of  the  elections,  the  old  man  replied  that, 
while  he  did  not  know  the  intentions  of  the  Comte  de 
Gondreville,  he  should  himself  vote  for  Charles  Keller 
and  employ  his  influence  for  that  election. 

As  soon  as  this  answer  of  old  Grevin  had  circulated 
through  Arcis,  a  reaction  against  him  set  in.  Although 
for  thirty  years  this  provincial  Aristides  possessed 
the  confidence  of  the  whole  town,  —  having  been  mayor 
of  Arcis  from  1804  to  1814  and  again  during  the 
Hundred  Days,  —  and  although  the  Opposition  had 
accepted  him  as  their  leader  until  the  triumph  of  1830, 
at  which  period  he  refused  the  honors  of  the  mayor- 
ilty    on   the   ground   of   his  great   age,    and   finally, 

■although  the  town,  in  order  to  manifest  its  affection 
for  him,  elected  his  son-in-law.  Monsieur  Beauvisage, 

^mayor  in  his  stead,  it  now  revolted  against  him,  and 
►me  young  striplings  went  so  far  as  to  talk  of  his 
lotage.     The  partisans  of  Simon  Giguet  then  turned 

[to  Phileas  Beauvisage,  the  mayor,  and  won  him  over 


14  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

the  more  easily  to  their  side  because,  without  having 
quarrelled  with  his  father-in-law,  he  assumed  an  in- 
dependence of  him  which  had  ended  in  coldness,  — 
an  independence  that  the  sly  old  notary  allowed  him 
to  maintain,  seeing  in  it  an  excellent  means  of  action 
on  the  town  of  Arcis. 

The  mayor,  questioned  the  evening  before  in  the 
open  street,  declared  positively  that  he  should  cast  his 
vote  for  the  first-comer  on  the  list  of  eligibles  rather 
than  give  it  to  Charles  Keller,  for  whom,  however,  he 
had  a  high  esteem. 

'*  Arcis  shall  be  no  longer  a  rotten  borough  !  "  he  said, 
"  or  I  '11  emigrate  to  Paris." 

Flatter  the  passions  of  the  moment  and  you  will 
always  be  a  hero,   even  at  Arcis-sur-Aube. 

"Monsieur  le  maire,"  said  everybody,  ''  gives  noble 
proof  of  his  firmness  of  character." 

Nothing  progresses  so  rapidly  as  a  legal  revolt. 
That  evening  Madame  Marion  and  her  friends  organ- 
ized for  the  morrow  a  meeting  of  "  independent  elec- 
tors "  in  the  interests  of  Simon  Giguet,  the  colonel's 
son.  The  morrow  had  now  come  and  had  turned  the 
house  topsy-turvy  to  receive  the  friends  on  whose 
independence  the  leaders  of  the  movement  counted. 
Simon  Giguet,  the  native-born  candidate  of  a  little 
town  jealously  desirous  to  elect  a  son  of  its  own,  had, 
as  we  have  seen,  put  to  profit  this  desire ;  and  yet, 
the  whole  prosperity  and  fortune  of  the  Giguet  family 
were  the  work  of  the  Comte  de  Gondreville.  But  when 
it  comes  to  an  election,  what  are  sentiments! 

This  Scene  is  written  for  the  information  of  countries 
so  unfortunate  as  not  to  know  the  blessings  of  national 


The  De'puty  of  Arcis.  15 

representation,  and  which  are,  therefore,  ignorant  by 
what  intestinal  convulsions,  what  Brutus-like  sacrifices, 
a  little  town  gives  birth  to  a  deputy.  Majestic  but 
natural  spectacle,  which  may,  indeed,  be  compared 
with  that  of  childbirth,  —  the  same  throes,  the  same  im- 
purities, the  same  lacerations,  the  same  final  triumph  ! 

It  may  be  asked  why  an  only  son,  whose  fortune  was 
sufficient,  should  be,  like  Simon  Giguet,  an  ordinary 
barrister  in  a  little  country  town  where  barristers  are 
pretty  nearly  useless.  A  word  about  the  candidate  is 
therefore  necessary. 

Colonel  Giguet  had  had,  between  1806  and  1813 
by  his  wife  who  died  in  1814,  three  children,  the  eldest 
of  whom,  Simon,  alone  survived.  Until  he  became  an 
only  child,  Simon  was  brought  up  as  a  youth  to  whom 
the  exercise  of  a  profession  would  be  necessary.  And 
about  the  time  he  became  by  the  death  of  his  brothers 
the  family  heir,  the  young  man  met  with  a  serious 
disappointment.  Madame  Marion  had  counted  much, 
for  her  nephew,  on  the  inheritance  of  his  grandfatlier 
the  banker  of  Hamburg.  But  when  that  old  German 
died  in  1826,  he  left  his  grandson  Giguet  a  paltry  two 
thousand  francs  a  year.  The  worthy  banker,  endowed 
with  great  procreative  powers,  having  soothed  the  wor- 
ries of  business  by  the  pleasures  of  paternity,  favored 
the  families  of  eleven  other  children  who  surrounded 
him,  and  who  made  him  believe,  with  some  appearance 
of  justice,  that  Simon  Giguet  was  already  a  rich  man. 

Besides  all  this,  the  colonel  was  bent  on  giving  his 
son  an  independent  position,  and  for  this  reason  ;  the 
Giguets  could  not  expect  any  government  favors  under 
the  Restoration.      Even   if  Simon  liad  not  been  the 


16  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

son  of  an  ardent  Bonapartist,  he  belonged  to  a  family 
whose  members  had  justly  incurred  the  animosity 
of  the  Cinq-Cygne  family,  owing  to  the  part  which 
Giguet,  the  colonel  of  gendarmerie,  and  the  Marions, 
including  Madame  Marion,  had  taken  as  witnesses  on 
the  famous  trial  of  the  Messieurs  de  Simeuse,  unjustly 
condemned  in  1805  for  the  abduction  of  the  Comte  de 
Gondreville,  then  senator,  and  formerly  representative 
of  the  people,  who  had  despoiled  the  Cinq-Cygne  fam- 
ily of  their  property.  [See  ''  An  Historical  Mystery."] 
Grevin  was  not  only  one  of  the  most  important  wit- 
nesses at  that  trial,  but  he  was  one  of  the  chief  pro- 
moters of  the  prosecution.  That  affair  divides  to  this 
day  the  arrondissement  of  Arcis  into  two  parties  ;  one 
of  which  declares  the  innocence  of  the  condemned,  and 
upholds  the  Cinq-Cygne  family ;  the  other  standing  by 
the  Comte  de  Gondreville  and  his  adherents.  Though, 
under  the  Restoration,  the  Comtesse  de  Cinq-Cygne 
used  all  the  influence  the  return  of  the  Bourbons  gave 
her  to  arrange  things  as  she  wished  in  the  department 
of  the  Aube,  the  Comte  de  Gondreville  contrived  to 
counterbalance  this  Cinq-Cygne  royalty  by  the  secret 
authority  he  wielded  over  the  liberals  of  the  town 
through  the  notary  Grevin,  Colonel  Giguet,  his  son-in- 
law  Keller  (always  elected  deputy  in  spite  of  the  Cinq- 
Cygnes),  and  also  by  the  credit  he  maintained,  as  long 
as  Louis  XVIII.  lived,  in  the  counsels  of  the  crown.  It 
was  not  until  after  the  death  of  that  king  that  the 
Comtesse  de  Cinq-Cygne  was  able  to  get  Michu  ap- 
pointed judge  of  the  court  of  assizes  in  Arcis.  She 
desired  of  all  things  to  obtain  this  place  for  the  son 
of  the  steward  who  had  perished  on  the  scaffold  at 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  17 

Troyes,  the  victim  of  his  devotion  to  the  Simeuse  fam- 
ily, whose  full-length  portrait  always  hung  in  her  salon, 
whether  in  Paris  or  at  Cinq-Cygne.  Until  1823  the 
Comte  de  Gondreville  had  possessed  sufficient  power 
over  Louis  XVIII.  to  prevent  this  appointment  of 
Michu. 

It  was  by  the  advice  of  the  Corate  de  Gondreville 
that  Colonel  Giguet  made  his  son  a  lawyer.  Simon 
had  all  the  more  opportunity  of  shining  at  the  bar  in 
the  arrondissement  of  Arcis  because  he  was  the  only 
barrister,  solicitors  pleading  their  own  cases  in  these 
petty  localities.  The  young  man  had  really  secured 
certain  triumphs  in  the  court  of  assizes  of  the  An  be, 
but  he  was  none  the  less  an  object  of  derision  to  Fre- 
deric Marest,  procureur-du-roi^  Olivier  Vinet,  the  sub- 
stitute procureur,  and  the  judge,  Michu,  —  the  three 
best  minds  in  the  court. 

Simon  Giguet,  like  other  men,  paid  goodly  tribute  to 
the  mighty  power  of  ridicule  that  pursued  him.  He 
liked  to  hear  himself  talk,  and  he  talked  on  all  occa- 
sions ;  he  solemnly  delivered  himself  of  dry  and  long- 
winded  sentences  which  passed  for  eloquence  among 
the  upper  bourgeoisie  of  Arcis.  The  poor  fellow  be- 
longed to  that  species  of  bore  which  desires  to  explain 
everything,  even  the  simplest  thing.  He  explained 
rain  ;  he  explained  the  revolution  of  July ;  he  ex- 
plained things  impenetrable;  he  explained  Louis- 
Philippe,  Odilon  Barrot,  Monsieur  Thiers,  the  Eastern 
Question ;  he  explained  Champagne ;  he  explained 
1788;  he  explained  the  tariff  of  custom  houses  and 
humanitarians,  magnetism  and  the  economy  of  the 
civil  list. 

2 


18  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

This  lean  young  man,  with  a  bilious  skin,  tall  enough 
to  justify  his  sonorous  nullity  (for  it  is  rare  that  a  tall 
man  does  not  have  eminent  faculties  of  some  kind)  out- 
did the  Puritanism  of  the  votaries  of  the  extreme  Left, 
all  of  them  so  sensitive,  after  the  manner  of  prudes 
who  have  their  intrigues  to  hide.  Dressed  invariably 
in  black,  he  wore  a  white  cravat  which  came  down  low 
on  his  chest,  so  that  his  face  seemed  to  issue  from  a 
horn  of  white  paper,  for  the  collar  of  his  shirt  was  high 
and  stiff  after  a  fashion  now,  fortunately,  exploded. 
His  trousers  and  his  coats  were  always  too  large  for 
him.  He  had  what  is  called  in  the  provinces  dignity  ; 
that  is  to  say,  he  was  stiffly  erect  and  pompously  dull 
in  manner.  His  friend,  Antonin  Goulard,  accused 
him  of  imitating  Monsieur  Dupin.  And,  in  truth,  the 
young  barrister  was  apt  to  wear  shoes  and  stout  socks 
of  black  filoselle. 

Protected  by  the  respect  that  every  one  bore  to  his 
father,  and  by  the  influence  exercised  by  his  aunt  over 
a  little  town  whose  principal  inhabitants  had  frequented 
her  salon  for  many  years,  Simon  Giguet,  possessing 
already  ten  thousand  francs  a  year,  not  counting  the 
fees  of  his  profession  and  the  fortune  his  aunt  would 
not  fail  to  leave  him,  felt  no  doubt  of  his  election. 
Nevertheless,  the  first  sound  of  the  bell  announcing 
the  arrival  of  the  most  influential  electors  echoed  in 
the  heart  of  the  ambitious  aspirant  and  filled  it  with 
vasrue  fears.  Simon  did  not  conceal  from  himself  the 
cleverness  and  the  immense  resources  of  old  Grevin, 
nor  the  prestige  attending  the  means  that  would  surely 
be  employed  by  the  ministry  to  promote  the  candidacy 
of  a  young  and  dashing  oflflcer  then  in  Africa,  attached 
to  the  staff  of  the  prince-royal. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  19 

"I  think,"  he  said  to  his  father,  "that  I  have  the 
colic ;  I  feel  a  warmth  at  the  pit  of  my  stomach  that 
makes  me  very  uneasy." 

'*  Old  soldiers,"  replied  the  colonel,  ''  have  the  same 
feeling  when  they  hear  the  cannon  beginning  to  growl 
at  the  opening  of  a  battle." 

"What  will  it  be  in  the  Chamber!"  said  the 
barrister. 

"  The  Comte  de  Gondreville  told  me,"  said  the  old 
colonel,  "  that  he  has  known  more  than  one  orator 
affected  with  the  qualms  which  precede,  even  with  us 
old  fire-eaters,  the  opening  of  a  battle.  But  all  this  is 
idle  talk.  You  want  to  be  a  deputy,"  added  the  old 
man,  shrugging  his  shoulders,   "then  be  one!" 

"Father,  the  real  triumph  will  be  Cecile!  Cecile 
has  an  immense  fortune.  Now-a-days  an  immense  for- 
tune means  power." 

"  Dear  me  !  how  times  have  changed  !  Under  the 
Emperor  men  had  to  be  brave." 

"  Each  epoch  is  summed  up  in  a  phrase,"  said 
Simon,  recalling  an  observation  of  the  Comte  de  Gon- 
dreville, which  paints  that  personage  well.  He  re- 
marked :  "  Under  the  Empire,  when  it  was  desirable 
to  destroy  a  man,  people  said,  'He  is  a  coward.* 
To-day  we  say,  '  He  is  a  cheat.' " 

"Poor  France!  where  are  they  leading  you?"  cried 
the  colonel;  "  I  shall  go  back  to  my  roses." 

"Oh,  stay,  father!  You  are  the  keystone  of  the 
arch." 


V 


20  The  Deputy  of  Areis. 


III. 

OPPOSITION   DEFINES   ITSELF. 

The  mayor,  Monsieur  Phil^as  Beauvisage,  was  the 
first  to  present  himself,  accompanied  by  the  successor 
of  his  father-in-law,  the  busiest  notary  in  town, 
Achille  Pigoult,  grandson  of  an  old  man  who  had 
continued  justice  of  the  peace  in  Arcis  during  the 
Revolution,  the  Empire,  and  the  Restoration.  Achille 
Pigoult,  thirty-two  years  of  age,  had  been  eighteen 
years  a  clerk  in  old  Grevin's  office  with  no  means  of 
becoming  himself  a  notary.  His  father,  son  of  the 
justice  of  peace,  had  died  of  a  so-called  apoplexy, 
having  gone  wrong  in  business. 

The  Comte  de  Gondreville,  however,  with  whom  old 
Pigoult  had  relations  dating  back  to  1793,  lent  money 
for  the  necessary  security,  and  thus  enabled  the  grand- 
son of  the  judge  who  made  the  first  examination  in  the 
Simeuse  case  to  buy  the  practice  of  his  master, 
Grevin.  Achille  had  set  up  his  office  in  the  Place  de 
I'Eglise,  in  a  house  belonging  to  the  Comte  de  Gondre= 
ville,  which  the  latter  had  leased  to  him  at  so  low  a 
price  that  any  one  could  see  how  desirous  that  crafty 
politician  was  to  hold  the  leading  notary  of  Arcis  in 
the  hollow  of  his  hand. 

Young  Pigoult,  a  short,  skinny  man,  whose  eyes 
seemed  to  pierce  the  green  spectacles  which  could  not 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  21 

modify  the  spitefulness  of  his  glance,  well-informed 
as  to  all  the  interests  of  the  neighborhood,  owing  his 
aptitude  in  managing  affairs  to  a  certain  facility  of 
speech,  passed  for  what  is  called  a  qidzzer^  saying 
things  plainly  and  with  more  cleverness  than  the 
aborigines  could  put  into  their  conversations.  Still  a 
bachelor,  he  .was  awaiting  a  rich  marriage  through  the 
good  offices  of  his  two  protectors,  Grevin  and  the 
Comte  de  Gondreville.  Consequently,  barrister  Giguet 
was  not  a  little  surprised  on  seeing  Achille  appear  at 
the  meeting  in  company  with  Monsieur  Phileas  Beau- 
visage. 

The  notary,  whose  face  was  so  seamed  by  the  small- 
pox that  it  seemed  to  be  covered  with  a  white  net, 
formed  a  perfect  contrast  to  the  rotund  person  of  the 
mayor,  whose  face  resembled  a  full  moon,  but  a  warm 
and  lively  moon ;  its  tones  of  lily  and  of  rose  being 
still  further  brightened  by  a  gracious  smile,  the  result 
not  so  much  of  a  disposition  of  the  soul  as  of  that 
formation  of  the  lips  for  which  the  word  ''  simpering  " 
seems  to  have  been  created.  Phileas  Beauvisage  was 
endowed  with  so  great  a  contentment  with  himself  that 
he  smiled  on  all  the  world  and  under  all  circumstances. 
Those  simpering  lips  smiled  at  a  funeral.  The  liveliness 
that  abounded  in  his  infantine  blue  eyes  did  not  con- 
tradict that  perpetual  and  well-nigh  intolerable  smile. 

This  internal  satisfaction  passed  all  the  more  readily 
for  benevolence  and  affability,  because  Phileas  had 
made  himself  a  language  of  his  own,  remarkable  for 
its  immoderate  use  of  the  formulas  of  politeness.  He 
always  ''had  the  honor;"  to  all  his  inquiries  as  to 
the  health  of  absent  persons  he  added  the  adjectives 


I 


22  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

"  dear,"  '^good/'  ''  excellent."  He  lavished  condoling 
or  congratulatory  phrases  apropos  of  all  the  petty 
miseries  and  all  the  little  felicities  of  life.  He  con- 
cealed under  a  deluge  of  commonplaces  his  native 
incapacity,  his  total  want  of  education,  and  a  weak- 
ness of  character  which  can  only  be  expressed  by 
the  old  word  "  weathercock."  Be  not  uneasy  :  the 
weathercock  had  for  its  axis  the  beautiful  Madame 
Beauvisage,  Severine  Grevin,  the  most  remarkable 
woman  in  the  arrondissement. 

When  Severine  heard  of  what  she  called  her  hus- 
band's ''freak"  as  to  the  election,  she  said  to  him  on 
the  morning  of  the  meeting  at  Madame  Marion's :  — 

"-  It  was  well  enough  to  give  yourself  an  air  of 
independence;  but  you  mustn't  go  to  that  Giguet 
meeting  unless  Achille  Pigoult  accompanies  you ;  I  've 
told  him  to  come  and  take  you." 

Giving  Achille  Pigoult  as  mentor  to  Beauvisage 
meant  sending  a  spy  from  the  Gondreville  party  to 
the  Giguet  assemblage.  We  may  therefore  imagine 
the  grimace  which  contracted  the  puritan  visage  of 
Simon,  who  was  forced  to  welcome  graciously  an 
habitue  of  his  aunt's  salon  and  an  influential  elector, 
in  whom,  nevertheless,  he  saw  an  enemy.  " 

''Ah!"  he  thought  to  himself,  "  what  a  mistake  I 
made  in  refusing  him  that  security  when  he  asked  for 
it!  Old  Gondreville  had  more  sense  than  I —  Good- 
day  to  you,  'Achille,"  he  said,  assuming  a  jaunty 
manner ;  "  I  suppose  you  mean  to  trip  me  up." 

"Your  meeting  isn't  a  conspiracy  against  the  inde- 
pendence of  our  votes,"  replied  the  notary,  smiling. 
^'  We  are  all  playing  above-board,  I  take  it." 


The  Deputy  of  Jlms.  23 

**  Above-board,"  echoed  Beau  visage. 

And  the  mayor  began  to  laugh  with  that  expressionr 
less  laugh  by  which  some  persons  end  all  their  sen- 
tences ;  which  may,  perhaps,  be  called  the  ritornello  of 
their  conversation.  After  which  he  placed  himself  in 
what  we  must  describe  as  his  third  position,  standing 
full-front,  his  chest  expanded,  and  his  hands  behind 
his  back.  He  was  dressed  in  black  coat  and  trousers, 
with  an  effulgent  white  waistcoat,  opened  in  such  a 
way  as  to  show  two  diamond  shirt-buttons  worth 
several  tliousand  francs. 

''  We  shall  fight,  but  we  shall  not  be  the  less  good 
friends,"  he  said.  ''  That  is  the  essence  of  constitu- 
tional morals ;  he  !  he  !  he  !  That  is  how  /  understand 
the  alliance  of  monarchy  with  liberty ;  ha !  ha !  ha !  " 

Whereupon  the  mayor  took  Simon's  hand,  saying : 

*'  How  are  you,  my  good  friend?  Your  dear  mother 
and  our  worthy  colonel  are  no  doubt  as  well  to-day  as 
they  were  yesterday, — that  is,  I  presume  so, — he! 
he !  he !  "  adding,  with  an  air  of  perfect  beatitude, 
**  perhaps  a  little  agitated  by  the  ceremony  now  about 
to  take  place.  Ha  !  ha  !  young  man  ;  so  we  intend  to 
enter  a  political  career?  Ha!  ha!  ha!  This  is  our 
first  step  —  must  n't  step  back  —  it  is  a  great  career. 
I  'd  rather  it  were  you  than  I  to  rush  into  the  storms 
and  tempests  of  the  legislative  body,  hi !  hi !  —  how- 
ever agreeable  it  may  be  to  see  that  body  in  our  own 
person,  hi !  hi !  hi !  —  the  sovereign  power  of  France 
in  one  four  hundred  and  fifty-third!     Hi!  hi!  hi!" 

The  vocal  organ  of  Phileas  Beauvisage  had  an  agree- 
able sonority  altogether  in  harmony  with  the  legumi- 
nous curves  of  his  face  (of  the  color  of  a  light  yellow 


24  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

pumpkin),  his  solid  back,  and  his  broadly  expanded 
chest.  That  voice,  bass  in  volume,  could  soften  to  a 
barytone  and  utter,  in  the  giggle  with  which  Phileas 
ended  his  phrases,  a  silvery  note.  When  God  desired, 
in  order  to  place  all  species  of  mankind  in  this  his 
terrestrial  paradise,  to  create  within  it  a  provincial 
bourgeois,  his  hands  never  made  a  more  perfect  and 
complete  type  than  Phileas  Beauvisage. 

"  I  admire,"  said  that  great  work,  ''  the  devotion  of 
those  who  fling  themselves  into  the  tumult  of  political 
life ;  he  !  he !  he  !  It  takes  more  nerve  than  I  possess. 
Who  could  have  told  us  in  1812  or  1813  that  we  should 
come  to  this?  As  for  me,  nothing  can  surprise  me 
in  these  days,  when  asphalt,  india-rubber,  railroads, 
and  steam  have  changed  the  ground  we  tread  on,  and 
overcoats,  and  distances,  he,  he !  " 

These  last  words  were  seasoned  with  a  prolonged 
laugh,  and  accompanied  by  a  gesture  which  he  had 
made  more  especially  his  own :  he  closed  his  right 
fist,  struck  it  into  the  rounded  palm  of  his  left  hand, 
and  rubbed  it  there  with  joyous  satisfaction.  This 
performance  coincided  with  his  laughs  on  the  frequent 
occasions  when  he  thought  he  had  said  a  witty  thing. 
Perhaps  it  is  superfluous  to  add  that  Phileas  Beauvi- 
sage was  regarded  in  Arcis  as  an  amiable  and  charm- 
ing man. 

''  I  shall  endeavor,"  replied  Simon  Giguet,  ''  to 
worthily  represent  -^  " 

''The  sheep  of  Champagne,"  interpolated  Achille 
Pigoult,  interrupting  him. 

The  candidate  swallowed  that  shaft  without  reply, 
for  he  was  forced  at  that  moment  to  go  forward  and 
receive  two  more  influential  electors. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  25 

One  was  the  landlord  of  the  Mulet,  the  best  inn  in 
Arcis,  standing  on  the  Grande-Place  at  the  corner  of 
the  rue  de  Brienne.  This  worthy  landlord,  named 
Poupart,  had  married  the  sister  of  a  man-servant  at- 
tached to  the  Comtesse  de  Cinq-Cygne,  the  well- 
known  Gothard,  one  of  the  actors  and  witnesses  in 
the  Simeuse  affair. 

Poupart,  though  a  most  devoted  adherent  of  the 
Cinq-Cygne  family,  had  been  sounded  during  the  last 
day  or  two,  by  Colonel  Giguet's  valet,  with  so  much 
cleverness  and  perseverance  that  he  thought  he  was 
doing  an  ill  turn  to  the  Comte  de  Gondreville,  the 
enemy  of  the  Cinq-Cygnes,  by  giving  his  influence  to 
the  election  of  Simon  Giguet;  and  he  was  now  con- 
versing on  that  point  with  the  man  who  accompanied 
him,  an  apothecary  named  Fromaget,  who,  as  he  did 
not  furnish  his  wares  to  the  chateau  de  Gondreville, 
desired  nothing  better  than  to  cabal  against  the 
Kellers. 

These  two  individuals  of  the  lesser  bourgeoisie  could, 
in  consequence  of  their  connections,  determine  a  cer- 
tain number  of  floating  votes,  for  they  influenced  and 
advised  a  number  of  persons  to  whom  the  political 
opinions  of  the  candidate  were  a  matter  of  indiffer- 
ence. Consequently,  Simon  took  possession  of  Pou- 
part, and  delivered  the  apothecary  Fromaget  to  his 
father,  who  had  just  come  in  to  make  his  bow  to  the 
electors. 

The  sub-engineer  of  the  arrondissement,  the  secre- 
tary of  the  mayor's  office,  four  sheriffs,  three  solicitors, 
the  clerk  of  the  court,  and  the  clerk  of  the  justice  of 
the  peace,   the   registry-clerk,   and   the  tax-collector, 


26  The  De'puty  of  Arcis, 

all  officials  under  government,  two  doctors,  rivals  of 
Varlet,  Grevin's  brother-in-law,  a  miller  named  Lau- 
rent Coussard,  the  head  of  the  republicans  of  Arcis, 
the  two  assistant  mayors,  the  printer  and  publisher  of 
Arcis,  and  about  a  dozen  other  bourgeois  arrived  in 
succession,  and  walked  about  the  garden  until  the 
gathering  seemed  numerous  enough  to  admit  of  open- 
ing the  session. 

At  length,  about  mid-day,  fifty  men,  all  in  their 
best  clothes,  —  most  of  them  having  come  out  of  curi- 
osity to  see  the  handsome  salons  which  were  much 
talked  of  throughout  the  arrondissement,  —  were  seated 
on  the  chairs  Madame  Marion  had  provided  for  them. 
The  windows  were  left  open,  and  presently  so  deep  a 
silence  reigned  that  the  rustle  of  Madame  Marion's 
gown  was  heard,  —  that  good  woman  not  being  able  to 
resist  the  pleasure  of  descending  to  the  garden  and 
placing  herself  in  a  corner  whence  she  could  listen  to 
what  went  on  in  the  salon.  The  cook,  the  chamber- 
maid, and  the  man-servant  stood  in  the  dining-room 
and  shared  the  emotions  of  their  masters. 

"  Messieurs,"  said  Simon  Giguet,  ''  some  among  you 
desire  to  honor  my  father  by  asking  him  to  preside  at 
this  meeting ;  but  Colonel  Giguet  requests  me  to  pre- 
sent his  thanks,  and  express  due  gratitude  for  a  desire 
in  which  he  sees  a  reward  for  his  services  to  the  coun- 
try. We  are  in  his  house ;  he  thinks  he  ought,  there- 
fore, to  decline  those  functions,  and  he  desires  to 
propose  in  his  stead  an  honorable  merchant  on  whom 
your  suffrages  have  already  bestowed  the  chief  magis- 
tracy of  this  town,  Monsieur  Phileas  Beauvisage." 

"  Bravo !  bravo !  " 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  27 

*'  We  are,  I  think,  all  of  one  mind  in  adopting  for 
this  meeting  —  essentially  friendly,  but  entirely  free, 
which  will  prejudice  in  no  way  whatever  the  great 
preparatory  and  primary  meeting  in  which  you  will 
produce  your  candidates  and  weigh  their  merits  —  in 
adopting,  as  I  said,  the  parliamentary  and  constitu- 
tional —  forms  —  of  the  —  electoral  Chamber." 

''  Yes,  yes  !  "  cried  the  assembly  with  one  voice. 

''  Consequently,"  continued  Simon,  "  I  have  the 
honor  to  request,  according  to  the  wish  of  all  present, 
that  his  honor  the  mayor  will  now  take  the  chair." 

Phileas  rose  and  crossed  the  salon,  conscious  that 
he  was  becoming  as  red  as  a  cherry.  Then,  when 
he  stood  behind  the  table,  he  saw,  not  a  hundred 
eyes,  but  a  hundred  thousand  candles.  The  sun 
seemed  to  him  to  be  setting  fire  to  the  salon,  and  he 
had,  to  use  his  own  expression,  a  lump  of  salt  in  his 
throat. 

*'  Return  thanks,"  said  Simon,  in  a  low  voice. 

"  Messieurs  —  " 

Such  total  silence  ensued  that  Phileas  had  a  spasm 
of  colic. 

"  What  must  I  say,  Simon?"  he  whispered. 

"  Well,  well!  "  exclaimed  Achille  Pigoult. 

''Messieurs,"  said  Simon,  goaded  by  the  sarcastic 
interjection  of  the  little  notary,  ''  the  honor  which  you 
have  done  to  Monsieur  le  Maire  may  take  him  una- 
wares, but  it  cannot  surprise  him." 

''That's  it,"  said  Beauvisage;  "I  am  too  sensible 
of  this  attention  on  the  part  of  my  fellow-citizens  not 
to  be  excessively  flattered  by  it." 

"  Bravo  !  "  cried  the  notary  alone. 


28  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

*'The  devil  take  me!"  thought  Beauvisage,  "  if  I 
am  ever  caught  haranguing  again." 

''  Will  Messieurs  P>omaget  and  Marcelin  accept  the 
functions  of  inspectors  of  the  ballot?" 

"  It  would  be  more  regular,"  said  Achille  Pigoult, 
rising,  ''  if  the  meeting  itself  nominated  those  officers, 
—  following,  of  course,  the  parliamentary  forms  of  the 
Chamber." 

''That  is  best,"  said  the  huge  Monsieur  Mollot, 
clerk  of  the  court;  "otherwise  what  is  here  taking 
place  would  be  a  mere  farce  ;  we  should  not  be  free  in 
our  action,  in  which  case  we  might  as  well  continue  to 
do  the  will  of  Monsieur  Simon  Giguet." 

Simon  said  a  few  words  to  Beauvisage,  who  rose 
and  delivered  himself  of  a  ''Messieurs!  "  in  palpitat- 
ing tones. 

"  Pardon  me.  Monsieur  le  president,"  said  Achille 
Pigoult,  "  the  chairman  presides,  he  does  not  speak." 

"Messieurs"  continued  Beauvisage,  prompted  by 
Simon,  "  if  we  are  —  to  conform  —  to  parliamentary 
usage  —  I  shall  beg  —  the  honorable  gentleman  — 
Monsieur  Pigoult — to  address  the  meeting  —  from  this 
table —  here  present —  " 

Pigoult  sprang  to  the  tea-table,  stood  beside  it  with 
his  fingers  resting  lightly  on  its  edge,  and  gave  proof 
of  his  boldness  by  delivering  the  following  speech  with- 
out the  slightest  embarrassment,  and  somewhat  after 
the  manner  of  the  illustrious  Monsieur  Thiers. 

"  Messieurs,  it  was  not  I  who  made  that  proposal 
for  parliamentary  usage ;  nevertheless  I  can  conceive 
that  an  assemblage  of  some  sixty  notabilities  of  Cham- 
pagne needs  a  chairman  to  guide  it ;  for  no  flock  can 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  29 

get  on  without  a  shepherd.  If  we  had  voted  for  secret 
balloting,  I  am  certain  that  the  name  of  our  excellent 
mayor  would  have  been  returned  unanimously.  His 
opposition  to  the  candidate  put  forward  by  his  relations 
proves  to  us  that  he  possesses  civic  courage  in  the 
highest  degree,  inasmuch  as  he  has  dared  to  free  him- 
self from  the  closest  ties  —  those  of  family.  Patriot- 
ism before  family !  that  is  indeed  so  great  an  effort 
that,  to  make  it,  we  are  forced  to  believe  that  Brutus 
from  his  realm  of  justice  still  contemplates  us  after  the 
lapse  of  two  thousand,  five  hundred  and  some  years. 
It  seemed  natural  to  Maitre  Giguet,  who  had  the  merit 
of  divining  our  wishes  in  the  choice  of  a  chairman,  to 
guide  us  still  further  in  selecting  inspectors ;  but,  if  I 
am  not  mistaken,  you  think  with  me  that  once  is 
enough  —  and  you  are  right.  Our  mutual  friend, 
Simon  Giguet,  who  intends  to  offer  himself  as  candi- 
date, would  have  the  air  of  assuming  mastery,  and 
he  might,  consequently,  lose  in  our  minds  the  good- 
will we  should  otherwise  bestow  upon  a  modest  atti- 
tude like  that  of  his  venerable  father.  Now  what 
is  our  worthy  chairman  doing  at  this  moment  by 
accepting  the  method  of  presiding  suggested  to  him 
by  the  candidate  ?  He  is  depriving  us  of  our  liberty ! 
I  ask  you  :  is  it  proper  that  the  chairman  of  our  choice 
should  tell  us  to  nominate,  by  rising  or  sitting,  inspec- 
tors of  the  ballot  thus  forced  upon  us?  Have  we 
any  liberty  of  choice?  If  I  were  proposed,  I  believe 
all  present  would  rise  out  of  politeness ;  indeed,  we 
should  all  feel  bound  to  rise  for  one  another,  and  I 
say  there  can  be  no  choice  where  there  is  no  freedom 
of  action." 


L 


30  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

"He  is  right,"  said  the  sixty  auditors. 

''  Therefore,  let  us  each  write  two  names  on  a  ballot, 
and  the  two  gentlemen  who  are  elected  will  then  feel 
themselves  the  real  choice  of  this  assembly ;  they  will 
have  the  right,  conjointly  with  our  honorable  chair- 
man, to  pronounce  upon  the  majority  when  we  come 
to  a  vote  on  the  resolutions  to  be  oflfered.  We  are 
here,  I  think,  to  promise  to  a  candidate  the  fullest 
support  that  each  can  give  at  the  coming  primary  meet- 
ing of  all  the  electors  of  the  arrondissement.  This 
act  is  therefore,  and  I  so  declare  it,  a  grave  one.  Does 
it  not  concern  one  four-hundredth  part  of  the  govern- 
ing power, — as  our  excellent  mayor  has  lately  said 
with  the  ready  wit  that  characterizes  him  and  for 
which  we  have  so  high  an  appreciation?" 

During  these  remarks  Colonel  Giguet  was  cutting  a 
sheet  of  paper  into  strips,  and  Simon  had  sent  for 
pens  and  ink. 

This  preliminary  discussion  on  forms  had  already 
made  Simon  extremely  uneasy,  and  had  also  aroused 
the  attention  of  the  sixty  assembled  bourgeois.  Pres- 
ently they  began  to  write  their  ballots,  and  the  wily 
Pigoult  contrived  to  obtain  a  majority  for  Monsieur 
Mollot,  the  clerk  of  the  court,  and  Monsieur  Godivet, 
the  registrar.  These  nominations  were  naturally  very 
displeasing  to  Fromaget,  the  apothecary,  and  Marcelin 
the  solicitor. 

"You  enable  us,"  said  Achille  Pigoult,  "  to  manifest 
our  independence.  Therefore  you  may  feel  more  pride 
in  being  rejected  than  you  could  have  felt  in  being 
chosen." 

Everybody  laughed. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  31 

Simon  Giguet  then  produced  silence  by  demanding 
speecli  of  the  chairman,  whose  shirt  was  already  wet 
and  became  still  wetter  as  he  mustered  all  his  courage 
to  say :  — 

"Monsieur  Simon  Giguet  has  the  floor." 


¥ 


32  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 


IV. 

THE    FIRST   PARLIAMENTARY   TEMPEST. 

"  Messieurs,"  said  Simon  Giguet,  "  I  ask  permission 
to  thank  Monsieur  Achille  Pigoult,  who,  although  our 
meeting  is  altogether  friendly  —  " 

*'  It  is  a  meeting  preparatory  to  the  great  primary 
meeting,"  said  the  solicitor  Marcelin. 

''  That  is  what  I  was  about  to  explain,"  resumed 
Simon,  "  I  thank  Monsieur  Achille  Pigoult  for  having 
insisted  on  the  strictness  of  parliamentary  forms.  This 
is  the  first  time  that  the  arrondissement  of  Arcis  has 
been  at  liberty  to  use  —  " 

' '  At  liberty  !  "  said  Pigoult,  interrupting  the  orator. 

"  At  liberty  !  "  cried  the  assembly. 

"At  liberty,"  continued  Simon  Giguet,  "to  use  its 
rights  in  the  great  battle  of  a  general  election  to  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies ;  and  as,  in  a  few  days,  we  shall 
have  a  meeting,  at  which  all  electors  will  be  present,  to 
judge  of  the  merits  of  the  cjindidates,  we  ought  to  feel 
ourselves  most  fortunate  in  becoming  accustomed  here, 
in  this  limited  meeting,  to  the  usages  of  great  assem- 
blies. We  shall  be  all  the  more  able  to  decide  the 
political  future  of  the  town  of  Arcis ;  for  the  question 
now  is  to  substitute  a  town's  interests  for  family 
interests,  a  whole  region  for  a  man." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  33 

Simon  then  reviewed  the  history  of  the  Arcis  elec- 
tions for  the  last  twenty  years.  While  approving  the 
constant  election  of  Fran9ois  Keller,  he  said  the 
moment  had  now  come  to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  the 
house  of  Gondreville.  Arcis  ought  to  be  no  more  a 
fief  of  the  liberals  than  a  fief  of  the  Cinq-Cygnes. 
Advanced  opinions  were  arising  in  France  of  which  the 
Kellers  were  not  the  exponents.  Charles  Keller,  having 
become  a  viscount,  belonged  to  the  court ;  he  could 
have  no  independence,  because,  in  presenting  him  as 
candidate,  his  family  thought  much  more  of  making 
liim  succeed  to  his  father's  peerage  than  of  benefiting 
his  constituency  as  deputy,  etc.,  etc.  And,  finally, 
Simon  presented  himself  to  the  choice  of  his  fellow- 
citizens,  pledging  his  word  to  sit  on  the  same  bench 
with  the  illustrious  Odilon  Barrot,  and  never  to  desert 
the  glorious  flag  of  Progress. 

Progress!  one  of  those  words  behind  which  more 
flimsy  ambitions  than  ideas  were  trying  to  group  them- 
selves ;  for,  after  1830,  it  represented  only  the  pre- 
tensions of  a  few  hungry  democrats.  Nevertheless, 
this  word  had  still  a  great  effect  upon  Arcis,  and  gave 
stability  to  whosoever  might  inscribe  it  on  his  banner. 
To  call  himself  a  man  of  progress  was  to  declare  him- 
self a  philosopher  in  all  things  and  a  puritan  in  politics  ; 
it  declared  him  in  favor  of  railroads,  mackintoshes, 
penitentiaries,  wooden  pavements,  negro  freedom, 
savings-banks,  seamless  shoes,  lighting  by  gas,  asphalt 
pavements,  universal  suffrage,  and  reduction  of  the 
civil  list.  In  short,  it  meant  pronouncing  himself 
against  the  treaties  of  1815,  against  the  Eldest  Branch, 
against  the   colossus  of  the  North,  perfidious  Albion, 

3 


84  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

against  all  enterprises,  good  or  bad,  of  the  government. 
Thus  we  see  that  the  word pi^ogress  niight  signify  '■'  No," 
as  well  as  "  Yes."  It  was  gildnig  put  upon  the  word 
liberalism^  a  new  pass-word  for  new  ambitions. 

"  If  I  have  rightly  understood  what  this  meeting  is 
for,"  said  Jean  Violette,  a  stocking- maker,  who  had 
recently  bought  the  Beauvisage  house,  ''  it  is  to  pledge 
ourselves  to  support,  by  employing  every  means  in  our 
power,  Monsieur  Simon  Giguet  at  the  elections  as 
deputy  in  place  of  Comte  Fran9ois  Keller.  If  each  of 
us  intends  to  coalesce  in  this  manner  we  have  only  to 
say  plainly  Yes  or  No  on  that  point." 

''  That  is  going  too  quickly  to  the  point !  Political 
affairs  do  not  advance  in  that  w^ay,  or  there  would  be 
no  politics  at  all ! "  cried  Pigoult,  whose  old  grand- 
father, eighty-six  years  old,  had  just  entered  the  room. 
''  The  last  speaker  undertakes  to  decide  what  seems  to 
me,  according  to  my  feeble  lights,  the  very  object  we 
are  met  to  discuss.     I  demand  permission  to  speak." 

"  Monsieur  Achille  Pigoult  has  the  floor,"  said 
Beauvisage,  at  last  able  to  pronounce  that  phrase  with 
all  his  municipal  and  constitutional  dignity. 

"  Messieurs,"  said  the  notary,  "if  there  is  a  house 
in  Arcis  in  which  no  voice  should  be  raised  against  the 
influence  of  the  Comte  de  Gondreville,  it  is  surely  the 
one  we  are  now  in.  The  worthy  Colonel  Giguet  is 
the  only  person  in  it  w^ho  has  not  sought  the  benefits  of 
the  senatorial  power ;  he,  at  least,  has  never  asked 
anything  of  the  Comte  de  Gondreville,  who  took  his 
name  off  the  list  of  exiles  in  1815  and  caused  him  to 
receive  the  pension  which  the  colonel  now  enjoys  with- 
out lifting  a  finger  to  obtain  it." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  35 

A  miirmnr,  flattering  to  the  old  soldier,  greeted  this 
observation. 

"  But,"  continued  the  orator,  *'  the  Marions  are 
covered  with  the  count's  benefits.  Without  that 
influence,  the  late  Colonel  Giguet  would  not  have 
commanded  the  gendarmerie  of  the  Aube.  The  late 
Monsieur  Marion  would  not  have  been  chief-justice  of 
the  Imperial  court  without  the  protection  of  the  count, 
to  whom  I  myself  have  every  reason  to  be  thankful. 
You  will  therefore  tiiink  it  natural  that  I  should  be  his 
advocate  within  these  walls.  There  are,  indeed,  few 
persons  in  this  arrondissement  who  have  not  received 
benefits  from  that  family." 

[Murmurs.] 

*'  A  candidate  puts  himself  in  the  stocks,"  continued 
Achille  Pigoult,  warming  up.  ''  I  have  the  right  to 
scrutinize  his  life  before  I  invest  him  with  my 
powers.  I  do  not  desire  ingratitude  in  the  delegate 
I  may  help  to  send  to  the  Chamber,  for  ingratitude  is 
like  misfortune  —  one  ingratitude  leads  to  others.  We 
have  been,  he  tells  us,  the  stepping-stone  of  the 
Kellers;  well,  from  what  I  have  heard  here,  I  am 
afraid  we  may  become  the  stepping-stone  of  the 
Giguets.  We  live  in  a  practical  age,  do  we  not? 
Well,  then,  let  us  examine  into  what  will  be  the  results 
to  the  arrondissement  of  Arcis  if  Simon  Giguet  is 
elected.  They  talk  to  you  of  independence !  Simon, 
whom  I  thus  maltreat  as  candidate,  is  my  personal 
friend,  as  he  is  that  of  all  who  hear  me,  and  I  should 
myself  be  charmed  to  see  him  the  orator  of  the  Left, 
-eated  between  Garnier-Pag^s  and  Lafitte ;  but  how 
would  that  benefit  the  arrondissement?      The   arron- 


36  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

dissement  would  lose  the  support  of  the  Comte  de 
Gondreville  and  the  Kellers.  We  all,  in  the  course  of 
five  years,  have  had  and  shall  have  need  of  the  one  and 
of  the  others.  Some  have  gone  to  the  Marechale  de 
Carigliano  to  obtain  the  release  of  a  young  fellow  who 
had  drawn  a  bad  number.  Others  have  had  recourse  to 
the  influence  of  the  Kellers  in  many  matters  which  are 
decided  according  to  their  recommendation.  We  have 
always  found  the  old  Comte  de  Gondreville  ready  to  do 
us  service.  It  is  enough  to  belong  to  Arcis  to  obtain 
admission  to  him  without  being  forced  to  kick  our  heels 
in  his  antechamber.  Those  two  families  know  every 
one  in  Arcis.  Where  is  the  financial  influence  of  the 
Giguets,  and  what  power  have  they  with  the  ministry? 
Have  they  any  standing  at  the  Bourse?  When  we 
want  to  replace  our  wretched  wooden  bridge  with  one 
of  stone  can  they  obtain  from  the  department  and  the 
State  the  necessary  funds?  By  electing  Charles  Keller 
we  shall  cement  a  bond  of  friendship  which  has  never, 
to  this  day,  failed  to  do  us  service.  By  electing  my 
good,  my  excellent  schoolmate,  my  worthy  friend 
Simon  Giguet,  we  shall  realize  nothing  but  losses  until 
the  far-distant  time  when  he  becomes  a  minister.  I 
know  his  modesty  well  enough  to  be  certain  he  will  not 
contradict  me  when  I  say  tliat  I  doubt  his  election  to 
the  post  of  deputy.  [Laughter.]  "  I  have  come  to  this 
meeting  to  oppose  a  course  which  I  regard  as  fatal  to 
our  arrondissement.  Charles  Keller  belongs  to  the 
court,  they  say  to  me.  Well,  so  much  the  better !  we 
shall  not  have  to  pay  the  costs  of  his  political  apprentice- 
ship ;  he  knows  the  affairs  of  the  country ;  he  knows 
parliamentary  necessities ;  he  is  much  nearer  being  a 


The  Deputy  of  Arciso  37 

statesman  than  my  friend  Simon,  who  will  not  pretend 
to  have  made  himself  a  Pitt  or  a  Talleyrand  in  a  little 
town  like  Arcis  —  " 

''  Danton  went  from  it! "  cried  Colonfel  Giguet, 
furious  at  Achille's  speech  and  the  justice  of  it. 

'Mkavo!" 

This  was  an  acclamation,  and  sixty  persons  clapped 
their  hands. 

''  My  father  has  a  ready  wit,"  whispered  Simon 
Giguet  to  Beauvisage. 

''  I  do  not  understand  why,  apropos  of  an  election," 
continued  the  old  colonel,  rising  suddenly,  with  the 
blood  boiling  in  his  face,  ''  we  should  be  hauled  up  for 
the  ties  which  connect  us  with  the  Comte  de  Gondreville. 
My  son's  fortune  comes  from  his  mother;  he  has  asked 
nothing  of  the  Comte  de  Gondreville.  The  comte 
might  never  have  existed  and  Simon  would  have  been 
what  he  now  is,  —  the  son  of  a  colonel  of  artillery  who 
owes  his  rank  to  his  services ;  a  man  whose  opinions 
have  never  varied.  I  should  say  openly  to  the  Comte 
de  Gondreville  if  he  were  present :  '  We  have  elected 
your  son-in-law  for  twenty  years ;  to-day  we  wish  to 
prove  that  in  so  doing  we  acted  of  our  own  free-will, 
and  we  now  elect  a  man  of  Arcis,  in  order  to  show 
that  the  old  spirit  of  1789,  to  which  you  owe  your 
fortune,  still  lives  in  the  land  of  Danton,  Malin,  Grevin, 
rigoult,  Marion  —    That  is  all !  " 

And  the  old  man  sat  down.  Whereupon  a  great 
hubbub  arose.  Achille  opened  his  mouth  to  reply. 
IJeauvisage,  who  would  not  have  thought  himself  chair- 
man unless  he  had  rung  his  bell,  increased  the  racket, 
and  called  for  silence.     It  was  then  two  o'clock. 


h 


38  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

"  I  shall  take  the  liberty  to  observe  to  the  honorable 
Colonel  Giguet,  whose  feeUngs  are  easily  understood, 
that  he  took  upon  himself  to  speak,  which  is  against 
parliamentary  usage,"  said  Achille  Pigoult. 

"  I  think  it  is  not  necessary  to  call  the  colonel  to 
order,"  said  the  chairman.     '^  He  is  a  father  —  " 

Silence  was  re-established. 

''  We  did  not  come  here,"  cried  Fromaget,  "  to  say 
Amen  to  everything  the  Messieurs  Giguet,  father  and 
son,  may  wish  —  " 

''No !  no!  "  cried  the  assembly. 

"  Things  are  going  badly,"  said  Madame  Marion  to 
her  cook  in  the  garden. 

"  Messieurs,"  resumed  Achille,  ''  I  confine  myself  to 
asking  my  friend  Simon  Giguet,  categorically,  what  he 
expects  to  do  for  our  interests." 

"  Yes  !  yes  !  "  cried  the  assembly. 

"  Since  when,  demanded  Simon  Giguet,  "  have  good 
citizens  like  those  of  Arcis  made  trade  and  barter  of 
the  sacred  mission  of  deputy  ?  " 

It  is  impossible  to  represent  the  effect  produced  by 
noble  sentiments  on  a  body  of  men.  They  will  applaud 
fine  maxims,  while  they  none  the  less  vote  for  the 
degradation  .of  their  country,  like  the  galley-slave  who 
shouted  for  the  punishment  of  Robert  Macaire  when  he 
saw  the  thing  played,  and  then  went  off  and  killed  his 
own  Monsieur  Germeuil. 

"  Bravo ! ''  cried  several  true-blood  Giguet  electors. 

'*  You  will  send  me  to  the  Chamber,"  went  on  Simon, 
''  if  you  do  send  me,  to  represent  principles,  the  prin- 
ciples of  1789  ;  to  be  one  of  the  ciphers,  if  you  choose, 
of  the  Opposition,  but  a  cipher  that  votes  with  it  to 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  39 

enlighten  the  government,  make  war  against  abuses, 
and  promote  progress  in  all  things  — " 

* '  What  do  you  call  progress  ? "  asked  Fromaget. 
''  For  us,  progress  means  getting  the  waste  lands  of 
la  Champagne  under  cultivation." 

"Progress!  I  will  explain  to  you  what  I  mean  by 
that,"  cried  Giguet,  exasperated  by  the  interruption. 

"It  is  the  frontier  of  the  Rhine  for  France,"  put  in 
the  colonel,  "  and  the  destruction  of  the  treaties  of 
1815." 

"  It  is  selling  wheat  dear  and  keeping  bread  cheap," 
cried  Achille  Pigoult  sarcastically,  thinking  that  he 
made  a  joke,  but  actually  expressing  one  of  the  delu- 
sions that  reign  in  France. 

"  It  is  the  happiness  of  all,  obtained  by  the  triumph 
of  humanitarian  doctrines,"  continued  Simon. 

"  What  did  I  tell  you?"  said  Achille  to  his  neigh- 
bors. 

"  Hush  !  silence  !  let  us  listen !  "  said  various  voices. 

"  Messieurs,"  said  the  stout  Mollot,  smiling,  "  the 
debate  is  beginning ;  give  your  attention  to  the  orator ; 
and  let  him  explain  himself. " 

"In  all  transitional  epochs,  Messieurs,''  continued 
Simon,  gravely,  "  and  we  are  now  in  such  an  epoch  —  " 

* '  Ba-a-a  !  ba-a-a  !  "  bleated  a  friend  of  Achille 
Pigoult,  who  possessed  the  faculty  (precious  at  elec- 
tions) of  ventriloquism. 

A  roar  of  laughter  came  from  the  whole  assembly, 
who  were  Champagnards  before  all  else.  Simon  Giguet 
folded  liis  arms  and  waited  till  the  tumult  subsided. 

"If  it  was  intended  to  give  me  a  lesson,"  he  re- 
sumed, "  and  to  tell  me  that  I  belong  to  the  flock  of 


40  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

the  glorious  defenders  of  the  rights  of  humanity,  the 
flock  of  the  immortal  priest  who  pleads  for  dying 
Poland,  the  daring  pamphleteers,  the  scrutinizers  of 
the  civil  test,  the  philosophers  who  demand  sincerity 
in  the  working  of  our  institutions,  if  that  was  the  inten- 
tion of  my  nameless  interrupter,  I  thank  him.  To  me, 
progress  is  the  realization  of  all  that  was  promised  to 
us  by  the  revolution  of  July;  it  is  electoral  reform, 
it  is—" 

"  What !  are  you  a  democrat?  "  said  Achille  Pigoult. 

*'  No,"  replied  the  candidate.  ''  To  desire  the  legiti- 
mate and  regular  development  of  our  institutions,  is 
that  being  a  democrat  ?  To  me,  progress  is  fraternity 
re-established  between  the  members  of  the  great  French 
i2im\\y.  We  cannot  conceal  from  ourselves  that  many 
sufferings  —  " 

At  three  o'clock  Simon  Giguet  was  still  explaining 
Progress,  accompanied  by  the  rhythmic  snores  of  vari- 
ous electors  which  denoted  a  sound  sleep.  The  mali- 
cious Achille  Pigoult  had  urged  all  present  to  listen 
religiously  to  the  young  orator,  who  was  now  flounder- 
ing in  his  phrases  and  paraphrases  hopelessly  at 
random. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  41 


THE   PERPLEXITIES    OF    THE    GOVERNMENT    IN    ARCIS. 

At  this  moment  several  groups  of  bourgeois,  elec- 
tors and  non-electors,  were  standing  before  the  Chateau 
d' Arcis,  the  iron  gates  of  which  open  on  the  square 
near  to  the  door  of  Madame  Marion's  house.  This 
square  is  a  piece  of  open  ground  from  which  issue 
several  roads  and  several  streets.  In  it  is  a  covered 
market.  Opposite  to  the  chateau,  on  the  other  side  of 
the  square,  which  is  neither  paved  nor  macadamized, 
and  where  the  rain  has  made  various  little  gutters,  is  a 
fine  esplanade,  called  the  Avenue  of  Sighs.  Is  that  to 
the  honor  or  to  the  blame  of  the  leaders  of  the  town? 
This  singular  amphibology  is  no  doubt  a  stroke  of 
native  wit. 

Two  handsome  side  avenues,  planted  with  lindens, 
lead  from  the  square  to  a  circular  boulevard  which 
forms  another  promenade,  though  usually  deserted, 
where  more  dirt  and  rubbish  than  promenaders  may 
commonly  be  seen. 

At  the  height  of  the  discussion  which  Achille  Pigoult 
\.  as  dramatizing  with  a  coolness  and  courage  worthy 
of  a  member  of  a  real  parliament,  four  personages 
were  walking  down  one  of  the  linden  avenues  which 
led  from  the  Avenue  of  Sighs.  When  they  reached 
the  square,  they  stopped  as  if  by  common  consent,  and 


42  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

looked  at  the  inhabitants  of  Arcis,  who  were  humming 
before  the  chateau  like  so  many  bees  before  returning 
to  their  hives  at  night.  The  four  promenaders  were 
the  whole  ministerial  conclave  of  Arcis,  namely :  the 
sub-prefect,  the  procureur-du-roi^  his  substitute,  and 
the  examining-judge.  Monsieur  Martener.  The  judge 
of  the  court,  Monsieur  Michu,  was,  as  we  know  already, 
a  partisan  of  the  Elder  Branch  and  a  devoted  adherent 
of  the  house  of  Cinq-Cygne. 

"  No,  I  don't  understand  the  action  of  the  govern- 
ment," repeated  the  sub-prefect,  Antonin  Goulard, 
pointing  to  the  groups  which  seemed  to  be  thickening. 
"At  such  an  important  crisis  to  leave  me  without 
instructions !  " 

''In  that  you  are  like  the  rest  of  us,"  said  Olivier 
Vinet,  the  substitute,  smiling. 

"  Why  do  you  blame  the  government?"  asked  the 
procureur-du-roi^  Frederic  Marest. 

"The  ministry  is  much  embarrassed,"  remarked 
young  Martener.  '^  It  knows  that  this  arrondissement 
belongs,  in  a  certain  way,  to  the  Kellers,  and  it  is 
very  desirous  not  to  thwart  them.  It  is  forced  to  keep 
on  good  terms  with  the  only  man  who  is  comparable 
to  Monsieur  de  Talleyrand.  It  is  not  to  the  prefect, 
but  to  the  Comte  de  Gondreville  that  you  ought  to 
send  the  commissary  of  police." 

''Meanwhile,"  said  Frederic  Marest,  "the  Oppo- 
sition is  bestirring  itself;  you  see  yourselves  the 
influence  of  Monsieur  Giguet.  Our  mayor,  Mon- 
sieur Beauvisage,  is  presiding  over  that  preparatory 
meeting." 

"After   all,"  said   Olivier  Vinet   slyly  to  the  sub- 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  48 

prefect,  '*  Simon  Giguet  is  your  friend  and  school- 
mate ;  he  will  belong  to  the  Thiers'  party ;  you  risk 
nothing  in  supporting  his  election." 

"  The  present  ministry  could  dismiss  me  before  its 
fall,"  replied  the  sub-prefect,  *'  and  who  knows  when 
I  should  be  reappointed?" 

'*  Collinet,  the  grocer !  —  that  makes  the  sixty-sixth 
elector  who  has  entered  the  Giguet  house,"  said  Mon- 
sieur Martener,  who  was  practising  his  trade  as  exam- 
ining-judge  by  counting  the  electors. 

*'If  Charles  Keller  is  the  ministerial  candidate," 
resumed  the  sub-prefect,  ''  I  ought  to  have  been  told 
of  it ;  the  government  makes  a  mistake  in  giving  time 
for  Simon  Giguet  to  get  hold  of  the  electors." 

These  four  individuals  had  now  reached,  walking 
slowly,  the  spot  where  the  avenue  ceases  and  becomes 
an  open  square. 

*'  There's  Monsieur  Groslier,"  said  the  judge,  catch- 
ing sight  of  a  man  on  horseback. 

This  was  the  commissary  of  police ;  he  saw  the 
government  of  Arcis  collected  on  the  public  square,  and 
he  rode  up  to  the  four  gentlemen.  , 

''Well,  Monsieur  Groslier?  "  said  the  sub-prefect, 
taking  the  commissary  a  little  apart  from  his  three 
colleagues. 

*'  Monsieur,"  said  the  commissary  of  police  in  a 
low  voice,  ''  Monsieur  le  prefet  has  sent  me  to  tell 
you  some  sad  news ;  Monsieur  le  Vicomte  Charles 
Keller  is  dead.  The  news  reached  Paris  by  telegram 
niglit  before  last,  and  the  two  Messieurs  Keller,  the 
(omte  de  Gondreville,  the  Marechale  Carigliano,  in 
fact  the  whole  familv  are  now  at  Gondreville.     Abd-el- 


44  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

Kader  has  resumed  the  offensive  in  Africa;  the  war  is 
being  vigorously  carried  on.  This  poor  young  man 
was  among  the  first  victims  of  the  renewal  of  hos- 
tilities. You  will  receive  confidential  instructions,  so 
Monsieur  le  prefet  told  me,  in  relation  to  the  coming 
election." 

"  By  whom?  "  asked  the  sub-prefect. 

"  If  I  knew  that,  the  matter  would  not  be  confiden- 
tial," replied  the  commissary.  ''In  fact,  I  think  the 
prefect  himself  does  not  know.  He  told  me  that 
the  matter  would  be  a  secret  one  between  you  and  the 
ministry." 

Then  he  rode  on,  after  seeing  the  sub-prefect  lay  his 
fingers  on  his  lips  as  a  warning  to  keep  silence. 

"Well,  what  news  from  the  prefecture?"  said  the 
procureur-du-roi,  when  Goulard  returned  to  the  group 
of  the  three  functionaries. 

"  Nothing  satisfactory."  replied  Goulard,  stepping 
quickly,  as  if  he  wanted  to  get  away  from  the  others, 
who  now  walked  silently  toward  the  middle  of  the 
square,  somewhat  piqued  by  the  manner  of  the  sub- 
prefect.  There  Monsieur  Martener  noticed  old  Ma- 
dame Beauvisage,  the  mother  of  Phileas,  surrounded  by 
nearly  all  the  bourgeois  on  the  square,  to  whom  she 
was  apparently  relating  something.  A  solicitor,  named 
Sinot,  who  numbered  all  the  royalists  of  Arcis  among 
his  clients,  and  who  had  not  gone  to  the  Giguet  meet- 
ing, now  detached  himself  from  the  group,  and  running 
to  the  door  of  the  Marion  house  rang  the  bell  violently. 

"What  can  be  the  matter?"  said  Frederic  Marest, 
dropping  his  eyeglass,  and  calling  the  attention  of  his 
colleagues  to  this  circumstance. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  45 

"  The  matter  is,  messieurs,"  said  the  sub-prefect, 
thinking  it  useless  to  keep  a  secret  which  was  evi- 
dently known  to  the  other  party,  '^  that  Charles  Keller 
has  been  killed  in  Africa,  and  that  this  event  doubles 
the  chances  of  Simon  Giguet.  You  know  Arcis  ;  there 
can  be  no  other  ministerial  candidate  than  Charles 
Keller.  Any  other  man  would  find  the  whole  local 
patriotism  of  the  place  arrayed  against  him. 

**Will  they  really  elect  such  an  idiot  as  Simon 
Giguet?"    said   Olivier  Vinet,  laughing. 

This  young  substitute,  then  only  twenty-three  years 
of  age,  was  the  son  of  one  of  our  most  famous  attor- 
ney-generals, who  had  come  into  power  with  the  Revo- 
lution of  July ;  he  therefore  owed  his  early  entrance 
into  public  life  to  the  influence  of  his  father.  The 
latter,  always  elected  deputy  by  the  town  of  Provins, 
is  one  of  the  buttresses  of  the  Centre  in  the  Chamber. 
Therefore  the  son,  whose  mother  was  a  Demoiselle  de 
Chargebceuf  [see  "  Pierrette  "  ],  had  a  certain  air  of  as- 
surance, both  in  his  functions  and  in  his  personal  be- 
havior, that  plainly  showed  the  backing  of  his  father. 
He  expressed  his  opinion  on  men  and  things  without 
reserve ;  for  he  confidently  expected  not  to  stay  very 
long  at  Arcis,  but  to  receive  his  appointment  as  pro- 
riireur-du-roi  at  Versailles,  a  sure  step  to  a  post  in 
Paris. 

The  confident  air  of  this  little  Vinet,  and  the  sort  of 
assumption  which  the  certainty  of  making  his  way  gave 
to  him,  was  all  the  more  irritating  to  Frederic  Marest, 
his  superior,  because  a  biting  wit  accompanied  the 
rather  undisciplined  habits  and  manners  of  his  young 
subordinate.     Frederic  Marest,  procureur-du-roi^  a  man 


46  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

about  forty  years  of  age,  who  had  spent  six  years  of 
his  life  under  the  Restoration  in  becoming  a  substitute 
only  to  be  neglected  and  left  in  Arcis  by  the  govern- 
ment of  July,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  had  some 
eighteen  thousand  francs  a  year  of  his  own,  was  per- 
petually kept  on  the  rack  between  the  necessity  of 
winning  the  good  graces  of  young  Vinet's  father — a 
touchy  attorney-general  who  might  become  Keeper  of 
the  Seals  —  and  of   keeping  his  own  dignity. 

Olivier  Vinet,  slender  in  figure,  with  a  pallid  face, 
lighted  by  a  pair  of  malicious  green  eyes,  was  one  of 
tliose  sarcastic  young  gentlemen,  inclined  to  dissipa- 
tion, who  nevertheless  know  how  to  assume  the  pom- 
pous, haughty,  and  pedantic  air  with  which  magistrates 
arm  themselves  when  they  once  reach  the  bench.  The 
tall,  stout,  heavy,  and  grave  p^^ocureur-du-roi  had 
lately  invented  a  system  by  which  he  hoped  to  keep 
out  of  trouble  with  the  exasperating  Olivier  ;  he  treated 
him  as  a  father  would  treat  a  spoilt  child. 

"  Olivier,"  he  replied  to  his  substitute,  slapping  him 
on  the  shoulder,  "  a  man  of  your  capacity  ought  to  re- 
flect that  Mattre  Giguet  is  very  likely  to  become  deputy. 
You'd  have  made  that  remark  just  as  readily  before  the 
people  of  Arcis  as  before  us,  who  are  safe  friends." 

"•  There  is  one  thing  against  Giguet,"  observed 
Monsieur  Martener. 

This  good  young  man,  rather  heavy  but  full  of 
capacity,  the  son  of  a  physician  in  Provins,  owed  his 
place  to  Vinet's  father,  who  was  long  a  lawyer  in 
Provins  and  still  continued  to  be  the  patron  of  its 
people  as  the  Corate  de  Gondreville  was  the  patron  of 
the  people  of  Arcis. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  47 

*'  What  is  that  ?  "  asked  the  sub-prefect. 

*'  Local  patriotism  is  always  bitterly  against  a  man 
who  is  imposed  upon  the  electors,"  replied  the  exarain- 
ing-judge,  ^'  but  when  it  happens  that  the  good  people 
of  Arcis  have  to  elevate  one  of  their  own  equals  to 
the  Chamber,  envy  and  jealousy  are  stronger  thau 
patriotism." 

''That  is  very  simple,"  said  the  procureur-dnrroi, 
"  and  very  true.  If  you  can  manage  to  collect  fifty 
ministerial  votes  you  will  find  yourself  master  of  the 
coming  election,"  he  added,  addressing  the  sub-prefect. 

''  It  will  do  if  you  produce  a  candidate  of  the  same 
calibre  as  Simon  Giguet,"  said  Olivier  Vinet. 

The  sub-prefect  allowed  an  expression  of  satisfac- 
tion to  appear  upon  his  features,  which  did  not  escape 
the  notice  of  his  three  companions,  with  whom,  more- 
over, he  had  a  full  understanding.  All  four  being 
bachelors,  and  tolerably  rich,  they  had  formed,  with- 
out premeditation,  an  alliance  against  the  dulness  of 
the  provinces.  The  three  functionaries  had  already 
remarked  tlie  sort  of  jealousy  that  Goulard  felt  for 
(liguet,  which  a  few  words  on  their  antecedents  will 
c'xi)hiin. 

Antonin  Goulanl,  the  son  of  a  former  huntsman  to 
the  house  of  Simeuse,  enriched  by  the  purchase  of  the 
confiscated  property  of  emigres  was,  like  Simon  Giguet, 
a  son  of  Arcis.  Old  Goulard,  his  fatlier,  left  the 
abbey  of  Valpreux  (corruption  of  Val-des-Preux)  to 
live  in  Arcis  after  the  death  of  his  wife,  and  lie  sent  his 
son  to  the  imperial  lyceum,  where  Colonel  Giguet  had 
already  placed  his  son  Simon.  The  two  schoolmates 
subsequently  went  through  their  legal  studies  in  Paris 


48  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

together,  and  their  intimacy  was  continued  in  the  amuse- 
ments of  youth.  They  promised  to  help  each  other  to 
success  in  life  whenever  they  entered  upon  their  differ- 
ent careers.  But  fate  willed  that  they  should  end  by 
being  rivals. 

In  spite  of  Goulard's  manifest  advantages,  in  spite 
of  the  cross  of  the  Legion  of  honor  which  the  Comte 
de  Gondreville  had  obtained  for  him  in  default  of  pro- 
motion, the  offer  of  his  heart  and  position  had  been 
frankly  declined  when,  about  six  months  before  this 
history  begins,  he  had  privately  presented  himself  to 
Madame  Beauvisage  as  a  suitor  for  her  daughter's 
hand.  No  step  of  that  nature  is  ever  taken  secretly  in 
the  provinces.  The  procureur-du-roi,  Frederic  Marest, 
whose  fortune,  buttonhole,  and  position  were  about  on 
a  par  with  those  of  Antonin  Goulard,  had  received  a 
like  refusal,  three  years  earlier,  based  on  the  difference 
of  ages.  Consequently,  the  two  officials  were  on  terms 
of  strict  politeness  with  the  Beauvisage  family,  and 
laughed  at  them  severally  in  private.  Both  had 
divined  and  communicated  to  each  other  the  real 
motive  of  the  candidacy  of  Simon  Giguet,  for  they 
fully  understood  the  hopes  of  Madame  Marion ;  and 
they  were  bent  on  preventing  her  nephew  from  marry- 
ing the  heiress  whose  hand  had  been  refused  to  them. 

''  God  grant  that  I  may  be  master  of  this  election," 
said  Goulard,  ''  and  that  the  Comte  de  Gondreville  may 
get  me  made  a  prefect,  for  I  have  no  more  desire  than 
you  to  spend  the  rest  of  my  days  here,  though  I  was 
born  in  Arcis." 

"You  have  a  fine  opportunity  to  be  elected  deputy 
yourself,   my  chief,"    said   Olivier   Vinet   to   Marest. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  49 

**  Come  and  see  my  father,  who  will,  I  think,  arrive 
here  from  Provins  in  a  few  hours.  Let  us  propose  to 
him  to  have  you  chosen  as  ministerial  candidate." 

''Halt!  "  said  Antonin ;  ''  the  ministry  has  its  own 
views  about  the  deputy  of  Arcis." 

"  Ah,  bah !  "  exclaimed  Vinet,  "  there  are  two  minis- 
tries :  the  one  that  thinks  it  makes  elections,  and 
another  that  thinks  it  profits  by  them." 

*'  Don't  let  us  complicate  Antonin's  difficulties," 
said  Frederic  Marest,  winking  at  his  substitute. 

The  four  officials,  who  had  crossed  the  open  square 
and  were  close  to  the  Mulct  inn,  now  saw  Poupart 
leaving  the  house  of  Madame  Marion  and  coming 
towards  them.  A  moment  later,  and  the  j^orte  cocMre 
of  that  house  vomited  the  sixtj^-seven  conspirators. 

''80  you  went  to  that  meeting?"  said  Antonin 
Goulard  to  Poupart. 

''  I  shall  never  go  again,  monsieur  le  sous-prefet," 
said  the  innkeeper.  ''  The  son  of  Monsieur  Keller  is 
dead,  and  I  have  now  no  object  in  going  there.  God 
has  taken  upon  himself  to  clear  the  ground." 

''Well,  Pigoult,  what  happened?"  cried  Olivier 
Vinet,  catching  sight  of  the  young  notary. 

"Oh!"  said  Pigoult,  on  whose  forehead  the  per- 
spiration, which  had  not  dried,  bore  testimony  to  his 
efforts,  "  Simon  has  just  told  some  news  that  made 
them  all  unanimous.  Except  five  persons,  —  Poupart, 
my  grandfather,  Mollot,  Sinot,  and  I,  —  all  present 
swore,  as  at  the  Jeu  de  Paume,  to  employ  every  means 
to  promote  the  triumph  of  Simon  Giguet,  of  whom  I 
have  made  a  mortal  enemy.  Oh !  we  got  warm,  I  can 
tell  you!     However,  I  led  the  Giguets  to  fulminate 

4 


50  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

against  the  Gondrevilles.  That  puts  the  old  count  on 
my  side.  No  later  than  to-morrow  he  will  hear  what 
the  soi-disant  patriots  of  Arcis  have  said  about  him 
and  his  corruptions  and  his  infamies,  to  free  their 
necks,  as  they  called  it,  of  his  yoke." 

"Unanimous,  were  they?"  said  Olivier  Vinet, 
laughing. 

*'  Unanimous  to-day  "  remarked  Monsieur  Martener. 

"Oh!"  exclaimed  Pigoult,  "the  general  sentiment 
of  the  electors  is  for  one  of  their  own  townsmen. 
Whom  can  you  oppose  to  Simon  Giguet,  — a  man  who 
has  just  spent  two  hours  in  explaining  the  word 
progress." 

"  Take  old  Grevin  !  "  cried  the  sub-prefect. 

"  He  has  no  such  ambition,"  replied  Pigoult.  "  But 
we  must  first  of  all  consult  the  Comte  de  Gondreville. 
Look,  look!"  he  added;  "see  the  attentions  with 
which  Simon  is  taking  home  that  gilded  booby, 
Beauvisage." 

And  he  pointed  to  the  candidate,  who  was  holding 
the  mayor  by  the  arm  and  whispering  in  his  ear. 
Beauvisage  meantime  was  bowing  right  and  left  to 
the  inhabitants,  who  gazed  at  him  with  the  deference 
which  provincials  always  testify  to  the  richest  man  in 
their  locality. 

But  there's  no  use  cajoling  /ii'm,"  continued  Pigoult. 
"  Cecile's  hand  does  not  depenjd  on  either  her  father 
or  her  mother." 

"On  whom,  then?" 

"  On  my  old  patron.  Monsieur  Grevin.  Even  if 
Simon  is  elected  deputy,  the  town  is  not  won." 

Though  the  sub-prefect  and  Frederic  Marest  tried 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  61 

to  get  an  explanation  of  these  words,  Pigoult  refused 
to  give  the  reason  of  an  exclamation  which  seemed  to 
them  big  with  meaning  and  implying  a  certain  knowl- 
edge of  the  plans  of  the  Beauvisage  family. 

All  Arcis  was  now  in  a  commotion,  not  only  on 
account  of  the  fatal  event  which  had  just  overtaken 
the  Gondreville  family,  but  because  of  the  great  reso- 
lution come  to  at  the  Giguet  house,  where  Madame 
Marion  and  her  three  servants  were  hurriedly  engaged 
in  putting  everything  in  its  usual  order,  ready  to  re- 
ceive her  customary  guests,  whose  curiosity  would  prob- 
ably bring  them  that  evening  in  large  numbers. 


52  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 


VI. 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1814    FROM   THE    HOSIERY  POINT 
OF   VIEW. 

Champagne  has  all  the  appearance  of  a  poor  region, 
and  it  is  a  poor  region.  Its  general  aspect  is  sad  ;  the 
land  is  flat.  Passing  through  the  villages,  and  even 
the  towns,  you  will  see  nothing  but  miserable  buildings 
of  wood  or  half-baked  clay  ;  the  best  are  built  of  brick. 
Stone  is  scarcely  used  at  all  except  on  public  build- 
ings. At  Arcis  the  chateau,  the  law  courts,  and  the 
church  are  the  only  stone  buildings.  Nevertheless, 
Chiampagne,  or,  if  you  prefer  to  say  so,  the  depart- 
ments of  the  Aube,  Marne,  and  Haut-Marne,  richly  en- 
dowed with  vineyards,  the  fame  of  which  is  world-wide, 
are  otherwise  full  of  flourishing  industries. 

Without  speaking  of  the  manufactures  of  Reims, 
nearl}'  all  the  hosiery  of  France  —  a  very  considerable 
trade  —  is  manufactured  about  Troyes.  The  surround- 
ing country,  over  a  circuit  of  thirty  miles,  is  covered 
with  workmen,  whose  looms  can  be  seen  through  the 
open  doors  as  we  pass  through  the  villages.  These 
workmen  are  employed  by  agents,  who  themselves  are 
in  the  service  of  speculators  called  manufacturers. 
The  agents  negotiate  with  the  large  Parisian  houses, 
often  with  the  retail  hosiers,  all  of  whom  put  out  the 
sign,  ''Manufacturers  of  Hosiery."  None  of  them 
have  ever  made  a  pair  of  stockings,  nor  a  cap,  nor  a 


The  De'puty  of  Arcis,  53;, 

sock  ;  all  their  hosiery  comes  chiefly  from  Champagne, 
though  there  are  a  few  skilled  workmen  in  Paris  who 
can  rival  the  Champenois. 

This  intermediate  agency  between  the  producer  and 
the  consumer  is  an  evil  not  confined  to  hosiery.  It 
exists  in  almost  all  trades,  and  increases  the  cost  of 
merchandise  by  the  amount  of  the  profit  exacted  by 
the  middlemen.  To  break  down  these  costly  parti- 
tions, that  injure  the  sale  of  products,  would  be  a 
magnificent  enterprise,  which,  in  its  results,  would  at- 
tain to  the  height  of  statesmanship.  In  fact,  industry 
of  all  kinds  would  gain  by  establishing  within  our  bor- 
ders the  cheapness  so  essential  to  enable  us  to  carry  on 
victoriously  the  industrial  warfare  with  foreign  coun- 
tries, —  a  struggle  as  deadly  as  that  of  arms. 

But  the  destruction  of  an  abuse  of  this  kind  would 
not  return  to  modern  philanthropists  the  glory  and  the 
advantages  of  a  crusade  against  the  empty  nutshells 
of  the  penitentiary  and  negrophobia;  consequently, 
the  interloping  profits  of  these  bankers  of  merchandise 
will  continue  to  weigh  heavily  both  on  producers  and 
consumers.  In  France  —  keen-witted  land  !  —  it  is 
thought  that  to  simplify  is  to  destroy.  The  Revolu- 
tion of  1789  is  still  a  terror. 

We  see,  by  the  industrial  energy  displayed  in  a  land 
where  Nature  is  a  godmother,  what  progress  agricul- 
ture might  make  if  capital  would  go  into  partnership 
with  the  soil,  which  is  not  so  thankless  in  Champagne 
as  it  is  in  Scotland,  where  capital  has  done  wonders. 
The  day  wlien  agriculture  will  have  conquered  the  un- 
fertile portion  of  those  departments,  and  industry  has 
seconded  capital  on  the  Champagne  chalk,  the  pros- 


54  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

perity  of  that  region  will  triple  itself.  Into  that  land, 
now  without  luxury,  where  homes  are  barren,  English 
comfort  will  penetrate,  money  will  obtain  that  rapid 
circulation  which  is  the  half  of  wealth,  and  is  already 
beginning  in  several  of  the  inert  portions  of  our  coun- 
try. Writers,  administrators,  the  Church  from  its  pul- 
pit, the  Press  in  its  columns,  all  to  whom  chance  has 
given  power  to  influence  the  masses,  should  say  and 
resay  this  truth, — to  hoard  is  a  social  crime.  The 
deliberate  hoarding  of  a  province  arrests  industrial 
life,  and  injures  the  health  of  a  nation. 

Thus  the  little  town  of  Arcis,  without  much  means  of 
transition,  doomed  apparently  to  the  most  complete 
immobility,  is,  relatively,  a  rich  town  abounding  in 
capital  slowly  amassed  by  its  trade  in  hosiery. 

Monsieur  Phileas  Beauvisage  was  the  Alexander,  or, 
if  you  will,  the  Attila  of  this  business.  And  here  fol- 
low the  means  by  which  this  honorable  merchant  had 
acquired  his  supremacy  over  cotton. 

The  last  remaining  child  of  farmers  named  Beau- 
visage,  tenants  of  the  splendid  farm  of  Bellache,  a  de- 
pendency of  the  Gondreville  estate,  his  parents  made, 
in  1811,  a  great  sacrifice  in  order  to  buy  a  substitute 
and  save  their  only  child  from  the  conscription.  After 
that,  in  1813,  the  mother  Beauvisage,  having  become 
a  widow,  saved  her  son  once  more  from  enrolment  in 
the  Gardes,  thanks  to  the  influence  of  the  Comte  de 
Gondreville.  Phileas,  who  was  then  twenty-one  years 
of  age,  had  been  devoted  for  the  last  three  years  to 
the  peaceable  trade  of  hosiery. 

Coming  to  the  end  of  the  lease  of  BellachC;  old 
Madame  Beauvisage  declined  to  renew  it.     She   saw 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  56 

she  had  enough  to  do  in  her  old  age  in  taking  care  of 
her  property.  That  nothing  might  give  her  uneasiness 
of  mind,  she  proceeded,  by  the  help  of  Monsieur 
Grevin,  the  notary  of  Arcis,  to  liquidate  her  husband's 
estate,  although  her  son  made  no  request  whatever  for 
a  settlement.  The  result  proved  that  she  owed  him 
the  sum  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  francs. 
The  good  woman  did  not  sell  her  landed  property, 
most  of  which  came  from  the  unfortunate  Michu,  the 
former  bailiff  of  the  Simeuse  family ;  she  paid  the  sum 
to  Phileas  in  ready  money,  —  advising  him  to  buy  out 
the  business  of  his  employer.  Monsieur  Pigoult,  the  son 
of  the  old  justice  of  the  peace,  whose  affairs  were  in  so 
bad  a  way  that  his  death,  as  we  have  said,  was  thought 
to  be  voluntary. 

Phileas  Beauvisage,  a  virtuous  youth,  having  a  deep 
respect  for  his  mother,  concluded  the  purchase  from 
his  patron,  and  as  he  had  the  bump  of  what  phrenolo- 
gists term  ''acquisitiveness,"  his  youthful  ardor  spent 
itself  upon  this  business,  which  he  thought  magnificent 
and  desired  to  increase  by  speculation. 

The  name  of  Phileas,  which  may  seem  peculiar,  is 
only  one  of  the  many  oddities  which  we  owe  to  the 
Revolution.  Attached  to  the  Simeuse  family,  and 
consequently,  good  Catholics,  the  Beauvisage  father 
and  mother  desired  to  have  their  son  baptized.  The 
rector  of  Cing-Cygne,  the  Abbe  Goujet,  whom  they 
consulted,  advised  them  to  give  their  son  for  patron  a 
saint  wliose  Greek  name  might  satisfy  the  municipality, 
—  for  the  child  was  born  at  a  period  when  children 
were  inscribed  on  the  civil  registers  under  the  fantastic 
names  of  the  Republican  calendar. 


56  The  Deputy  of  Areis. 

In  1814,  hosiery,  a  stable  business  with  few  risks  in 
ordinary  times,  was  subject  to  all  the  variations  in  the 
price  of  cotton.  This  price  depended  at  that  time  on 
the  triumph  or  the  defeat  of  the  Emperor  Napoleon, 
whose  adversaries,  the  English  generals,  used  to  say 
in  Spain:  "The  town  is  taken;  now  get  out  your 
bales." 

Pigoult,  former  patron  of  young  Phileas,  furnished 
the  raw  material  to  his  workmen,  who  were  scattered  all 
over  the  country.  At  the  time  when  he  sold  the  busi- 
ness to  Beauvisage  junior,  he  possessed  a  large  amount 
of  raw  cotton  bought  at  a  high  price,  whereas  Lisbon 
was  sending  enormous  quantities  into  the  Empire  at 
six  sous  the  kilogramme,  in  virtue  of  the  Emperors 
celebrated  decree.  The  reaction  produced  in  France 
by  the  introduction  of  the  Portuguese  cotton  caused 
the  death  of  Pigoult,  Achille's  father,  and  began  the 
fortune  of  Phileas,  who,  far  from  losing  his  head  like 
his  master,  made  his  prices  moderate  by  buying  cotton 
cheaply  and  in  doubling  the  quantity  ventured  upon  by 
his  predecessor.  This  simple  system  enabled  Phileas 
to  triple  the  manufacture  and  to  pose  as  the  benefactor 
of  the  workingmen ;  so  that  he  was  able  to  disperse 
his  hosiery  in  Paris  and  all  over  France  at  a  profit, 
when  the  luckiest  of  his  competitors  were  only  able  to 
sell  their  goods  at  cost  price. 

At  the  beginning  of  1814,  Phileas  had  emptied  his 
warerooms.  The  prospect  of  a  war  on  French  soil, 
the  hardships  of  which  were  likely  to  press  chiefly  on 
Champagne,  made  him  cautious.  He  manufactured 
nothing,  and  held  himself  ready  to  meet  all  events 
with  his  capital  turned  into  gold.     At  this  period  the 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  51 

custom-house  lines  were  no  longer  maintained.  Napo- 
leon could  not  do  without  his  thirty  thousand  custom- 
house othcers  for  service  in  the  field.  Cotton,  then 
introduced  through  a  thousand  loopholes,  slipped  into 
the  markets  of  France.  No  one  can  imagine  how  sly 
and  how  alert  cotton  had  become  at  this  epoch,  nor 
with  what  eagerness  the  English  laid  liold  of  a  country 
where  cotton  stockings  sold  for  six  francs  a  pair,  and 
cambric  shirts  were  objects  of  luxury. 

Manufacturers  of  the  second  class,  the  principal 
workmen,  reckoning  on  the  genius  of  Napoleon,  had 
bought  up  the  cottons  that  came  from  Spain.  They 
worked  it  up  in  hopes  of  being  able  later  to  give  the 
law  to  the  merchants  of  Paris.  Phile'as  observed  these 
facts.  When  the  war  ravaged  Champagne,  he  kept 
himself  between  the  French  army  and  Paris.  After 
each  lost  battle  he  went  among  the  workmen  who  had 
buried  their  products  in  casks,  —  a  sort  of  silo  of  hosiery, 
—  then,  gold  in  hand,  this  cossack  of  weaving  bought 
up,  from  village  to  village,  below  the  cost  of  fabrica- 
tion, tons  of  merchandise  which  might  otherwise  be- 
come at  any  time  a  prey  to  an  enemy  whose  feet  were 
as  much  in  need  of  being  socked  as  its  throat  of  being 
moistened. 

Phileas  displayed  under  these  unfortunate  circum- 
stances an  activity  nearly  equal  to  that  of  the  Emperor. 
This  general  of  hosiery  made  a  commercial  campaign 
of  1814  with  splendid  but  ignored  courage.  A  league 
or  two  behind  where  the  army  advanced  he  bought  up 
caps  and  socks  as  the  P^mperor  gathered  immortal 
palms  by  his  very  reverses.  The  genius  was  equal  on 
both  sides,  though  exercised  in  different  spheres ;  one 


58  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

aimed  at  covering  heads,  the  other  at  mowing  them 
down.  Obliged  to  create  some  means  of  transportation 
in  order  to  save  his  tons  of  hosiery,  which  he  stored  in 
a  suburb  of  Paris,  Phileas  often  put  in  requisition 
horses  and  army-waggons,  as  if  the  safety  of  the 
empire  were  concerned.  But  the  majesty  of  commerce 
was  surely  as  precious  as  that  of  Napoleon.  The  Eng- 
lish merchants,  in  buying  out  the  European  markets, 
certainly  got  the  better  of  the  colossus  who  threatened 
their  trade. 

By  the  time  the  Emperor  abdicated  at  Fontainebleau, 
Phileas,  triumphant,  was  master  of  the  situation.  He 
maintained,  by  clever  manoeuvring,  the  depreciation  in 
cottons,  and  doubled  his  fortune  at  the  moment  when 
his  luckiest  competitors  were  getting  rid  of  their  mer- 
chandise at  a  loss  of  fifty  per  cent.  He  returned  to 
Arcis  with  a  fortune  of  three  hundred  thousand  francs, 
half  of  which,  invested  on  the  Grand-Livre  at  sixty, 
returned  him  an  income  of  fifteen  thousand  francs  a 
year.  He  employed  the  remainder  in  building,  fur- 
nishing, and  adorning  a  handsome  house  on  the  Place 
du  Pont  in  Arcis. 

On  the  return  of  the  successful  hosier.  Monsieur 
Grevin  was  naturally  his  confidant.  The  notary  had 
an  only  daughter  to  marry,  then  twenty  years  of  age. 
Grevin,  a  widower,  knew  the  fortune  of  Madame 
Beauvisage,  the  mother,  and  he  believed  in  tlie  energy 
and  capacity  of  a  young  man  bold  enough  to  have 
turned  the  campaign  of  1814  to  his  profit.  Severine 
Grevin  had  her  mother's  fortune  of  sixty  thousand 
francs  for  her  dower.  Grevin  was  then  over  fifty ;  he 
feared  to  die,  and  saw   no  chance   of  marrying   his 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  69 

dauffhter  as  he  wished  under  the  Restoration  —  for 
lier,  he  had  had  ambition.  Under  these  circumstances 
he  was  shrewd  enough  to  make  Phileas  ask  her  in 
marriage. 

Severine  Grevin,  a  well-trained  young  lady  and 
handsome,  was  considered  at  that  time  the  best  match 
in  Arcis.  In  fact,  an  alliance  with  the  intimate  friend 
of  the  senator  Comte  de  Gondreville,  peer  of  France, 
was  certainly  a  great  honor  for  the  son  of  a  Gondre- 
ville  tenant-farmer.  The  widow  Beauvisage,  his 
mother,  would  have  made  any  sacrifice  to  obtain  it ; 
but  on  learning  the  success  of  her  son,  she  dispensed 
with  the  duty  of  giving  him  a  dot^  —  a  wise  economy 
which  was  imitated  by  the  notary. 

Thus  was  consummated  the  union  of  the  son  of  a 
farmer  formerly  so  faithful  to  the  Simeuse  family  with 
the  daughter  of  its  most  cruel  enemy.  It  was,  per- 
haps, the  only  application  made  of  the  famous  saying 
of  Louis  XVIII.  :   "•  Union  and  Oblivion." 

On  the  second  return  of  the  Bourbons,  Grevin's 
father-in-law,  old  Doctor  Varlet,  died  at  the  age  of 
seventy-six,  leaving  two  hundred  thousand  francs  in 
gold  in  his  cellar,  besides  other  property  valued  at  an 
equal  sum.  Thus  Phileas  and  his  wife  had,  outside  of 
their  business,  an  assured  income  of  thirty  thousand 
francs  a  year. 

The  first  two  years  of  this  marriage  suflficed  to  show 
Madame  Severine  and  her  father.  Monsieur  Grevin  the 
absolute  silliness  of  Phileas  Beauvisage.  His  one 
gleam  of  commercial  rapacity  had  seemed  to  the 
notary  the  result  of  superior  powers ;  the  shrewd  old 
man  had  mistaken  youth  for  strength,  and  luck  for 


60.  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

genius  in  business.  Phileas  certainly  knew  how  to 
read  and  write  and  cipher  well,  but  he  had  read 
nothing.  Of  crass  ignorance,  it  was  quite  impossible 
to  keep  up  even  a  slight  conversation  with  him  ;  he 
replied  to  all  remarks  with  a  deluge  of  commonplaces 
pleasantly  uttered.  As  the  son  of  a  farmer,  however, 
Phileas  was  not  without  a  certain  commercial  good 
sense,  and  he  was  also  kind  and  tender,  and  would 
often  weep  at  a  moving  tale.  It  was  this  native 
goodness  of  heart  which  made  liim  respect  his  wife, 
whose  superiority  had  always  caused  him  the  deepest 
admiration. 

Severiue,  a  woman  of  ideas,  knew  all  things,  so 
Phileas  believed.  And  she  knew  them  the  more  cor- 
rectly because  she  consulted  her  father  on  all  subjects. 
She  was  gifted  with  great  firmness,  which  made  her 
the  absolute  mistress  in  her  own  home.  As  soon  as 
the  latter  result  was  attained,  the  old  notary  felt  less 
regret  in  seeing  that  his  daughter's  only  domestic  hap- 
piness lay  in  the  autocracy  which  usually  satisfies  all 
women  of  her  nature.  But  what  of  the  woman  her- 
self? Here  follows  what  she  was  said  to  have  found 
in  life. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  61 


VII. 

THE    BEAUVISAGE    FAMILY. 

During  the  reaction  of  1815,  a  Vicomte  de  Charge- 
boeuf  (of  the  poorer  branch  of  the  family)  was  sent  to 
Arcis  as  sub-prefect  through  the  influence  of  the  Mar- 
quise de  Cinq-Cygne,  to  whose  family  he  was  allied. 
This  young  man  remained  sub-prefect  for  five  years. 
The  beautiful  Madame  Beauvisage  was  not,  it  was 
said,  a  stranger  to  the  reasons  that  kept  him  in  this 
office  for  a  period  far  too  prolonged  for  his  own 
advancement.  We  ought  to  say,  however,  that  these 
remarks  were  not  justified  by  any  of  the  scandals 
which  in  the  provinces  betray  those  passions  that  are 
difficult  to  conceal  from  the  Argus-eyes  of  a  little 
town.  If  Severine  loved  the  Vicomte  de  Chargeboeuf 
and  was  beloved  by  him,  it  was  in  all  honor  and 
propriety,  said  the  friends  of  the  Grevins  and  the 
Marions ;  and  that  double  coterie  imposed  its  opinion 
on  the  whole  arrondissement ;  but  the  Marions  and  the 
Grevins  had  no  influence  on  the  royalists,  and  the 
royalists  regarded  the  sub-prefect  as  fortunate  in  love. 

As  soon  as  the  Marquise  de  Cinq-Cygne  heard  what 
was  said  in  the  chateaux  about  her  relation,  she  sent 
for  him;  and  such  was  her  horror  for  all  who  were 
connected,  near  or  far,  with  the  actors  in  the  judicial 
drama  so  fatal  to  her  family,  that  she  strictly  enjoined 


62  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

him  to  change  his  residence.  Not  only  that,  but  she 
obtained  his  appointment  as  sub-prefect  of  Sancerre 
with  the  promise  of  advancement  to  the  prefecture. 

Some  shrewd  observers  declared  that  the  viscount 
pretended  this  passion  for  the  purpose  of  being  made 
prefect ;  for  he  well  knew  the  hatred  felt  by  the  mar- 
quise for  the  name  of  Grevin.  Others  remarked  on 
the  coincidence  of  the  viscount's  apparitions  in  Paris 
with  the  visits  made  by  Madame  Beauvisage  to  the 
capital  on  frivolous  pretexts.  An  impartial  historian 
would  be  puzzled  to  form  a  just  opinion  on  the  facts 
of  this  matter,  which  are  buried  in  the  mysteries  of 
private  life.  One  circumstance  alone  seems  to  give 
color  to  the  reports. 

Cecile-Renee  Beauvisage  was  born  in  1820,  just  as 
Monsieur  de  Chargeboeuf  left  Arcis,  and  among  his 
various  names  was  that  of  Rene.  This  name  was 
given  by  the  Comte  de  Gondreville  as  godfather  of  the 
child.  Had  the  mother  objected  to  the  name,  she 
would  in  some  degree  have  given  color  to  the  rumor. 
As  gossip  always  endeavors  to  justify  itself,  the  giving 
of  this  name  was  said  to  be  a  bit  of  maliciousness  on 
the  part  of  the  old  count.  Madame  Keller,  the  count's 
daughter,  who  was  named  Cecile,  was  the  godmother. 
As  for  the  resemblance  shown  in  the  person  of  Cecile- 
Renee  Beauvisage,  it  was  striking.  This  young  girl 
was  like  neither  father  nor  mother ;  in  course  of  time 
she  had  become  the  living  image  of  the  Vicomte  de 
Chargeboeuf,  whose  aristocratic  manners  she  had  also 
acquired.  This  double  resemblance,  both  moral  and 
physical,  was  not  observed  by  the  inhabitants  of  Arcis, 
for  the  viscount  never  returned  to  that  town. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  63 

Severine  made  her  husband  happy  in  his  own  way. 
He  liked  good  living  and  everything  easy  about  him ; 
she  supplied  him  with  the  choicest  wines,  a  table 
worthy  of  a  bishop,  served  by  the  best  cook  in  the 
department  but  without  the  pretensions  of  luxury ;  for 
she  kept  her  household  strictly  to  the  conditions  of  the 
burgher  life  of  Arcis.  It  was  a  proverb  in  Arcis  that 
you  must  dine  with  Madame  Beauvisage  and  spend 
your  evening  with  Madame  Marion. 

The  renewed  influence  in  the  arrondissement  of 
Arcis  which  the  Restoration  gave  to  the  house  of 
Cinq-Cygne  had  naturally  drawn  closer  the  ties  that 
bound  together  the  various  families  affected  by  the 
criminal  trial  relating  to  the  abduction  of  Gondreville. 
[See  *'  An  Historical  Mystery."]  The  Marions, 
Grevins,  and  Giguets  were  all  the  more  united  because 
the  triumph  of  their  political  opinions,  called  ''  consti- 
tutional," now  required  the  utmost  harmony. 

As  a  matter  of  policy  Severine  encouraged  her 
husband  to  continue  his  trade  in  hosiery,  which  any 
other  man  but  himself  would  have  long  renounced ; 
and  she  sent  him  to  Paris,  and  about  the  country,  on 
business  connected  with  it.  Up  to  the  year  1830 
Phileas,  who  was  thus  enabled  to  exercise  his  bump  of 
''  acquisitiveness,"  earned  every  year  a  sum  equivalent 
to  his  expenses.  The  interest  on  the  property  of 
Monsieur  and  Madame  Beauvisage,  being  capitalized 
for  the  last  fifteen  years  by  Grevin's  intelligent  care,  be- 
came, by  1830,  a  round  sum  of  half  a  million  of  francs. 
That  sum  was,  in  fact,  Cecile*s  dot^  which  the  old 
notary  then  invested  in  the  Three-per-cents  at  fifty, 
producing  a  safe  income  of  thirty  thousand  a  year. 


64  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

After  1830  Beauvisage  sold  his  business  in  hosiery 
to  Jean  Violette,  one  of  his  agents  (grandson  of  one  of 
the  cliief  witnesses  for  the  prosecution  in  the  Simeuse 
trial),  the  proceeds  of  which  amounted  to  three  hundred 
thousand  francs.  Monsieur  and  Madame  Beauvisage 
had  also  in  prospect  their  double  inheritance  from  old 
Grevin  on  one  side,  and  the  old  farmer's  wife 
Beauvisage  on  the  other.  Great  provincial  fortunes 
are  usually  the  product  of  time  multiplied  by  economy. 
Thirty  years  of  old  age  make  capital. 

In  giving  to  Cecile-Renee  a  dot  of  fifty  thousand 
francs  a  year,  her  parents  still  reserved  for  themselves 
the  two  inheritances,  thirty  thousand  a  year  on  the 
Grand  Livre,  and  their  house  in  Arcis. 

If  the  Marquise  de  Cinq-Cygne  were  only  dead, 
Cecile  might  assuredly  marry  the  young  marquis ;  but 
the  health  of  that  great  lady,  who  was  still  vigorous 
and  almost  beautiful  at  sixty  years  of  age,  precluded 
all  hope  of  such  a  marriage  if  it  even  entered  the  minds 
of  Grevin  and  his  daughter,  as  some  persons,  sur- 
prised at  their  rejection  of  eligible  suitors  like  the  sub- 
prefect  and  the  procureur-du-roi^  declared  that  it  did. 

The  Beauvisage  residence,  one  of  the  best  in  Arcis, 
stands  on  the  Place  du  Pont  on  a  line  with  the  rue 
Vide-Bourse,  at  the  corner  of  the  rue  du  Pont,  which 
leads  to  the  Place  de  I'Eglise.  Though,  like  many 
provincial  houses,  without  either  court  or  garden,  it 
produces  a  certain  effect,  in  spite  of  its  ornamentation 
in  bad  taste.  The  front  door  opens  on  the  Place  ;  the 
windows  of  the  ground-floor  look  out  on  the  street-side 
tow^ards  the  post-house  and  inn,  and  command  beyond 
the  Place  a  rather  picturesque  view  of  the  Aube,  the 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  66 

navigation  of  which  begins  at  the  bridge.  Beyond  the 
bridge  is  another  little  Place  or  square,  on  which  lives 
Monsieur  Grevin,  and  from  which  the  high-road  to 
Sezanne  starts. 

On  the  street  and  on  the  square,  the  Beauvisage 
house,  painted  a  spotless  white,  looks  as  though  built 
of  stone.  The  height  of  the  windows  and  their  external 
mouldings  contribute  to  give  a  certain  style  to  the 
house  which  contrasts  strongly  with  the  generally  for- 
lorn appearance  of  the  houses  of  Arcis,  constructed,  as 
we  have  already  said,  of  wood,  and  covered  with 
plaster,  imitating  the  solidity  of  stone.  Still,  these 
houses  are  not  without  a  certain  originality,  through 
the  fact  that  each  architect,  or  each  burgher,  has 
endeavored  to  solve  for  himself  the  problem  of  styles 
of  building. 

The  bridge  at  Arcis  is  of  wood.  About  four  hundred 
feet  above  the  bridge  the  river  is  crossed  by  another 
bridge,  on  which  rise  the  tall  wooden  sides  of  a  mill 
with  several  sluices.  The  space  between  the  public 
bridge  and  this  private  bridge  forms  a  basin,  on  the 
banks  of  which  are  several  large  houses.  By  an  open- 
ing between  the  roofs  can  be  seen  the  height  on  which 
stands  the  chateau  of  Arcis  with  its  park  and  gardens, 
its  outer  walls  and  trees  which  overhang  the  river  above 
the  bridges,  and  the  rather  scanty  pastures  of  the  left 
bank. 

The  sound  of  the  water  as  it  runs  through  the 
courses  above  the  dam,  the  music  of  the  wheels,  from 
which  the  churned  water  falls  back  into  the  basin  in 
sparkling  cascades,  animate  the  rue  du  Pont,  contrast- 
ing in  this  respect  with  the  tranquillity  of  the   river 

5 


66  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

flowing  downward  between  the  garden  of  Monsieur 
Grevin,  whose  house  is  at  one  angle  of  the  bridge  on 
the  left  bank,  and  the  port  where  the  boats  and  barges 
discharge  their  merchandise  before  a  line  of  poor  but 
picturesque  houses. 

Nothing  can  better  express  provincial  life  than  the 
deep  silence  that  envelops  the  little  town  and  reigns  in 
its  busiest  region.  It  is  easy  to  imagine,  therefore, 
how  disquieting  the  presence  of  a  stranger,  if  he  only 
spends  half  a  day  there,  may  be  to  the  inhabitants ; 
with  what  attention  faces  protrude  from  the  windows  to 
obsei-ve  him,  and  also  the  condition  of  espial  in  which 
all  the  residents  of  the  little  place  stand  to  each  other. 
Life  has  there  become  so  conventional  that,  except  on 
Sundays  and  fete-days,  a  stranger  meets  no  one  either 
on  the  boulevards  or  the  Avenue  of  Sighs,  not  even, 
in  fact,  upon  the  streets. 

It  will  now  be  readily  understood  why  the  ground- 
floor  of  the  Beauvisage  house  is  on  a  level  with  the 
street  and  square.  The  square  serves  as  its  courtyard. 
Sitting  at  his  window  the  eyes  of  the  late  hosier  could 
take  in  the  whole  of  the  Place  de  I'Eglise,  the  two 
squares  of  the  bridge,  and  the  road  to  Sezanne.  He 
could  see  the  coaches  arriving  and  the  travellers 
descending  at  the  post-inn ;  and  on  court  days  he 
could  watch  the  proceedings  around  the  offices  of  the 
mayor  and  the  justice  of  peace.  For  these  reasons, 
Beauvisage  would  not  have  exchanged  his  house  for  the 
chateau,  in  spite  of  its  lordly  air,  its  stone  walls,  and 
its  splendid  situation. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  67 


I 


VIII. 

IN    WHICH    THE    DOT,     ONE    OP     THE     HEROINES     OP 
THIS     HISTORY,     APPEARS. 

Entering  the  Beauvisage  house  we  find  a  vestibule, 
at  the  farther  end  of  which  rises  the  staircase.  To  right 
we  enter  a  large  salon  with  two  windows  opening  on 
the  square ;  to  left  is  a  handsome  dining-room,  look- 
ing on  the  street.  The  floor  above  is  the  one  occupied 
by  the  family. 

Notwithstanding  the  large  fortune  of  the  Beauvisage 
husband  and  wife,  their  establishment  consisted  of  only 
a  cook  and  a  chamber-maid,  the  latter  a  peasant,  who 
washed  and  ironed  and  frotted  the  floors  rather  than 
waited  on  her  two  mistresses,  who  were  accustomed  to 
spend  their  time  in  dressing  and  waiting  upon  each  other. 
Since  the  sale  of  the  business  to  Jean  Violette,  the 
horse  and  cabriolet  used  by  PhiMas,  and  kept  at  the 
Hotel  de  la  Poste,  had  been  relinquished  and  sold. 

At  the  moment  when  Phileas  reached  his  house  after 
the  Giguet  meeting,  his  wife,  already  informed  of  the 
resolutions  passed,  had  put  on  her  boots  and  shawl  and 
was  preparing  to  go  to  her  father ;  for  she  felt  very 
sure  that  Madame  Marion  would,  on  that  same  even- 
ing, make  her  certain  overtures  relating  to  Simon  and 
C^cile.  After  telling  his  wife  of  Charles  Keller's 
death,    Pliilsas   asked    her    opinion    with    an    artless 


68  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

''What  do  you  think  of  that,  wife?"  which  fully 
pictured  his  habit  of  deferring  to  Severine's  opinion 
in  all  things.  Then  he  sat  down  in  an  arm-chair  and 
awaited  her  reply. 

In  1839,  Madame  Beauvisage,  then  forty- four  years 
old,  was  so  well  preserved  that  she  might,  in  that  re- 
spect, rival  Mademoiselle  Mars.  By  calling  to  mind 
the  most  charming  Celimene  that  the  Thedtre-Fran^ais 
ever  had,  an  excellent  idea  of  Severine  Grevin's  ap- 
pearance will  be  obtained.  The  same  richness  of 
coloring,  the  same  beauty  of  features,  the  same  clearly 
defined  outlines  ;  but  the  hosier's  wife  was  short,  —  a 
circumstance  which  deprived  her  of  that  noble  grace, 
that  charming  coquetry  a  la  Sevigne,  through  which 
the  great  actress  commends  herself  to  the  memory  of 
men  who  saw  both  the  Empire  and  the  Restoration. 

Provincial  life  and  the  rather  careless  style  of  dress 
into  which,  for  the  last  ten  years,  Severine  had  allowed 
herself  to  fall,  gave  a  somewhat  common  air  to  that 
noble  profile  and  those  beautiful  features ;  increasing 
plumpness  was  destroying  the  outlines  of  a  figure  mag- 
nificently fine  during  the  first  twelve  years  of  her 
married  life.  But  Severine  redeemed  these  growing 
imperfections  with  a  sovereign,  superb,  imperious 
glance,  and  a  certain  haughty  carriage  of  her  head. 
Her  hair,  still  black  and  thick  and  long,  was  raised 
high  upon  her  head,  giving  her  a  youthful  look.  Her 
shoulders  and  bosom  were  snowy,  but  they  now  rose 
puflSly  in  a  manner  to  obstruct  the  free  movement  of 
the  neck,  which  had  grown  too  short.  Her  plump  and 
dimpled  arms  ended  in  pretty  little  hands  that  were, 
alas,  too   fat.     She   was,   in  fact,  so  overdone   with 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  69 

fulness  of  life  and  health  that  her  flesh  formed  a  little 
pad,  as  one  might  call  it,  above  her  shoes.  Two  ear- 
drops, worth  about  three  thousand  francs  each,  adorned 
her  ears.  She  wore  a  lace  cap  with  pink  ribbons,  a 
mousseline-de-laine  gown  in  pink  and  gray  stripes  with 
an  edging  of  green,  opened  at  the  bottom  to  show  a 
petticoat  trimmed  with  valencienne  lace ;  and  a  green 
cashmere  shawl  with  palm-leaves,  the  point  of  which 
reached  the  ground  as  she  walked. 

'^  You  are  not  so  hungry,"  she  said,  casting  her  eyes 
on  Beauvisage,  ''that  you  can't  wait  half  an  hour? 
My  father  has  finished  dinner  and  I  could  n't  eat  mine 
in  peace  without  knowing  what  he  thinks  and  whether 
we  ought  to  go  to  Gondreville." 

''Go,  go,  my  dear.  I'll  wait,"  said  Phileas,  using 
the  "thee"  and  "thou." 

"Good  heavens!  "  cried  Severine  with  a  significant 
gesture  of  her  shoulders.  "  Shall  I  never  break  you  of 
that  habit  of  tutoying  me  ?  " 

"  I  never  do  it  before  company  —  not  since  1817," 
said  Phileas. 

'*  You  do  it  constantly  before  the  servants  and  your 
daughter." 

"As  you  will,  Severine,"  replied  Beauvisage  sadly. 

'*  Above  all,  don't  say  a  word  to  C^cile  about  this 
resolution  of  the  electors,"  added  Madame  Beauvisage, 
who  was  looking  in  the  glass  to  arrange  her  shawl. 

"Shall  I  go  with  you  to  your  father's?"  asked 
Phileas. 

"  No,  stay  with  C^cile.  Besides,  Jean  Violette  was 
to  pay  the  rest  of  the  purchase-money  to-day.  He  has 
twenty  thousand   francs   to   bring  you.     This  is  the 


70  The  Deputy  of  Areis. 

third  time  he  has  put  us  off  three  months  ;  don't  grant 
him  any  more  delays ;  if  he  can't  pay  now,  give  his 
note  to  Courtet,  the  sheriff,  and  take  the  law  of  him. 
Achille  Pigoult  will  tell  you  how  to  proceed.  That 
Violette  is  the  worthy  son  of  his  grandfather ;  I  think 
he  is  capable  of  enriching  himself  by  going  into  bank- 
ruptcy, —  there 's  neither  law  nor  gospel  in  him." 

"  He  is  very  intelligent,"  said  Beauvisage. 

*' You  have  given  him  the  good-will  of  a  fine  busi- 
ness for  thirty  thousand  francs,  which  is  certainly 
worth  fifty  thousand;  and  in  ten  years  he  has  only 
paid  you  ten  thousand  —  " 

''  I  never  sued  anybody  yet,"  replied  Beauvisage, 
''  and  I  'd  rather  lose  my  money  than  torment  a  poor 
man  — " 

*'  A  man  who  laughs  at  you  !  " 

Beauvisage  was  silent;  feeling  unable  to  reply  to 
that  cruel  remark,  he  looked  at  the  boards  which 
formed  the  floor  of  the  salon. 

Perhaps  the  progressive  abolition  of  mind  and  will 
in  Beauvisage  may  be  explained  by  the  abuse  of  sleep. 
Going  to  bed  every  night  at  eight  o'clock  and  getting 
up  the  next  morning  at  eight,  he  had  slept  his  twelve 
hours  nightly  for  the  last  twenty  years,  never  waking ; 
or  if  that  extraordinary  event  did  occur,  it  was  so 
serious  a  matter  to  his  mind  that  he  talked  of  it  all 
day.  He  spent  an  hour  at  his  toilet,  for  his  wife  had 
trained  him  not  to  appear  in  her  presence  at  breakfast 
unless  properly  shaved,  cleaned,  and  dressed  for  the 
day..  When  he  was  in  business,  he  departed  to  his 
oflflce  after  breakfast  and  returned  only  in  time  for 
dinner.     Since  1832,  he  had  substituted  for  his  busi- 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  71 

ness  occupations  a  daily  visit  to  his  father-in-law,  a 
promenade  about  the  town,  or  visits  to  his  friends. 

In  all  weather  he  wore  boots,  blue  coat  and  trousers, 
and  a  white  waistcoat,  —  the  style  of  dress  exacted  by 
his  wife.  His  linen  was  remarkable  for  its  fineness 
and  purity,  owing  to  the  fact  that  S^verine  obliged  him 
to  change  it  daily.  Such  care  for  his  person,  seldom 
taken  in  the  provinces,  contributed  to  make  him  con- 
sidered in  Arcis  very  much  as  a  man  of  elegance  is 
considered  in  Paris.  Externally  this  worthy  seller  of 
cotton  hose  seemed  to  be  a  personage ;  for  his  wife  had 
sense  enough  never  to  utter  a  word  which  could  put 
the  public  of  Arcis  on  the  scent  of  her  disappointment 
and  the  utter  nullity  of  her  husband,  who,  thanks  to 
his  smiles,  his  handsome  dress,  and  his  manners,  passed 
for  a  man  of  importance.  People  said  that  Severine 
was  so  jealous  of  him  that  she  prevented  him  from 
going  out  in  the  evening,  while  in  point  of  fact  Phileas 
was  bathing  the  roses  and  lilies  of  his  skin  in  bappy 
slumber. 

Beauvisage,  who  lived  according  to  his  tastes,  pam- 
pered by  his  wife,  well  served  by  his  two  servants, 
cajoled  by  his  daughter,  called  himself  the  happiest 
man  in  Arcis,  and  really  was  so.  The  feeling  of  Seve- 
rine for  this  nullity  of  a  man  never  went  beyond  the 
protecting  pity  of  a  mother  for  her  child.  She  disguised 
the  harshness  of  the  words  she  was  frequently  obliged 
to  say  to  him  by  a  joking  manner.  No  household 
was  ever  more  tranquil ;  and  the  aversion  Phileas  felt  for 
society,  where  he  went  to  sleep,  and  where  he  could 
not  play  cards  (being  incapable  of  learning  a  game), 
had  made  Severine  sole  mistress  of  her  evenings. 


72  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

Cecile*s  entrance  now  put  an  end  to  her  father's 
embarrassment,  and  he  cried  out  heartily :  — 

' '  Hey !  how  fine  we  are !  " 

Madame  Beauvisage  turned  round  abruptly  and  cast 
a  look  upon  her  daughter  which  made  the  girl  blush. 

"  Cecile,  who  told  you  to  dress  yourself  in  that 
way?  "  she  demanded. 

"  Are  not  we  going  to-night  to  Madame  Marion's? 
I  dressed  myself  now  to  see  if  my  new  gown  fitted 
me." 

"Cecile!  Cecile!"  exclaimed  Severine,  "why  do 
you  try  to  deceive  your  mother?  It  is  not  right;  and 
I  am  not  pleased  with  you  —  you  are  hiding  something 
from  me." 

"What  has  she  done?"  asked  Beauvisage,  delighted 
to  see  his  daughter  so  prettily  dressed. 

"What  has  she  done?  I  shall  tell  her,"  said 
Madame  Beauvisage,  shaking  her  finger  at  her  only 
child. 

Cecile  flung  herself  on  her  mother's  neck,  kissing 
and  coaxing  her,  which  is  a  means  by  which  only 
daughters  get  their  own  way. 

Cecile  Beauvisage,  a  girl  of  nineteen,  had  put  on  a 
gown  of  gray  silk  trimmed  with  gimp  and  tassels  of  a 
deeper  shade  of  gray,  making  the  front  of  the  gown 
look  like  a  pelisse.  The  corsage,  ornamented  with 
buttons  and  caps  to  the  sleeves,  ended  in  a  point  in 
front,  and  was  laced  up  behind  like  a  corset.  This 
species  of  corset  defined  the  back,  the  hips,  and  the 
bust  perfectly.  The  skirt,  trimmed  with  three  rows 
of  fringe,  fell  in  charming  folds,  showing  by  its  cut 
and  its  make  the  hand  of  a  Parisian  dressmaker.     A 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  78 

pretty  fichu  edged  with  lace  covered  her  shoulders; 
around  iier  throat  was  a  pink  silk  neckerchief,  charm- 
ingly tied,  and  on  her  head  was  a  straw  hat  ornamented 
with  one  moss  rose.  Her  hands  were  covered  with 
black  silk  mittens,  and  her  feet  were  in  bronze  kid 
boots.  This  gala  air,  which  gave  her  somewhat  the 
appearance  of  the  pictures  in  a  fashion-book,  delighted 
her  father. 

Cecile  was  well-made,  of  medium  height,  and  per- 
fectly well-proportioned.  She  had  braided  her  chest- 
nut hair,  according  to  the  fashion  of  1839,  in  two  thick 
plaits  which  followed  the  line  of  the  face  and  were 
fastened  by  their  ends  to  the  back  of  her  head.  Her 
face,  a  fine  oval,  and  beaming  with  health,  was  re- 
markable for  an  aristocratic  air  which  she  certainly  did 
not  derive  from  either  her  father  or  her  mother.  Her 
eyes,  of  a  light  brown,  were  totally  devoid  of  that 
gentle,  calm,  and  almost  timid  expression  natural  to 
the  eyes  of  young  girls.  Lively,  animated,  and  always 
well  in  health,  Cecile  spoiled,  by  a  sort  of  bourgeois 
matter-of-factness  and  the  manners  of  a  petted  child, 
all  that  her  person  presented  of  romantic  charm.  Still, 
a  husband  capable  of  reforming  her  education  and 
effacing  the  traces  of  provincial  life,  might  still  evolve 
from  that  living  block  a  charming  woman  of  the  world. 

Madame  Beauvisage  had  had  the  courage  to  bring 
up  her  daughter  to  good  principles ;  she  had  made  her- 
self employ  a  false  severity  which  enabled  her  to  com- 
pel obedience  and  repress  the  little  evil  that  existed  in 
the  girl's  soul.  Mother  and  daughter  had  never  been 
parted ;  thus  Cecile  had,  what  is  more  rare  in  young 
girls  than  is  generally  supposed,  a  purity  of  thought,  a 


74  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

freshness  of  heart,  and  a  naivete  of  nature,  real,  com- 
plete, and  flawless. 

*'Your  dress  is  enough  to  make  me  reflect,"  said 
Madame  Beauvisage.  '*Did  Simon  Giguet  say  any- 
thing to  you  yesterday  that  you  are  hiding  from  me?  " 

*'  Dear  mamma,"  said  Cecile  in  her  mother's  ear, 
"he  bores  me;  but  there  is  no  one  else  for  me  in 
Arcis." 

'*  You  judge  him  rightly  ;  but  wait  till  your  grand- 
father has  given  an  opinion,"  said  Madame  Beauvisage, 
kissing  her  daughter,  whose  reply  proved  her  great 
good-sense,  though  it  also  revealed  the  breach  made  in 
her  innocence  by  the  idea  of  marriage. 

Severine  was  devoted  to  her  father;  she  and  her 
daughter  allowed  no  one  but  themselves  to  take  charge 
of  his  linen ;  they  knitted  his  socks  for  him,  and  gave 
the  most  minute  care  to  his  comfort.  Grevin  knew 
that  no  thought  of  self-interest  had  entered  their  aff'ec- 
tion  ;  the  million  they  would  probably  inherit  could  not 
dry  their  tears  at  his  death ;  old  men  are  very  sensible 
of  disinterested  tenderness.  Every  morning  before 
going  to  see  him,  Madame  Beauvisage  and  Cecile  at- 
tended to  his  dinner  for  the  next  day,  sending  him  the 
best  that  the  market  afforded. 

Madame  Beauvisage  had  always  desired  that  her 
father  would  present  her  at  the  Chateau  de  Gondreville 
and  connect  her  with  the  count's  daughters ;  but  the 
wise  old  man  explained,  again  and  again,  how  difficult 
it  would  be  to  have  permanent  relations  with  the 
Duchesse  de  Carigliano,  who  lived  in  Paris  and  seldom 
came  to  Gondreville,  or  with  the  brilliant  Madame 
Keller,  after  doing  a  business  in  hosiery. 


The  De-puty  of  Arcis.  75 

*'  Your  life  is  lived,"  he  said  to  his  daughter;  ''  find 
all  your  enjoyments  henceforth  in  Cecile,  who  will  cer- 
tainly be  rich  enough  to  give  you  an  existence  as  broad 
and  high  as  you  deserve.  Choose  a  son-in-law  with 
ambition  and  means,  and  you  can  follow  her  to  Paris 
and  leave  that  jackass  Beau  visage  behind  j^ou.  If  I 
live  long  enough  to  see  Cecile's  husband  I  '11  pilot  you 
all  on  the  sea  of  political  interests,  as  I  once  piloted 
others,  and  you  will  reach  a  position  equal  to  that  of 
the  Kellers." 

These  few  words  were  said  before  the  revolution  of 
July,  1830.  Grevin  desired  to  live  that  he  might  get 
under  way  the  future  grandeur  of  his  daughter,  his 
grand-daughter,  and  his  great-grandchildren.  His 
ambition  extended  to  the  third  generation. 

When  he  talked  thus,  the  old  man's  idea  was  to 
marry  Cecile  to  Charles  Keller ;  he  was  now  grieving 
over  that  lost  hope,  uncertain  where  to  look  in  the 
future.  Having  no  relations  with  Parisian  society, 
and  seeing  in  the  department  of  the  Aube  no  other 
husband  for  Cecile  than  the  youthful  Marquis  de  Cinq- 
Cygne,  he  was  asking  himself  whether  by  the  power  of 
gold  he  could  surmount  the  animosities  which  the  rev- 
olution of  July  had  roused  between  the  royalists  who 
were  faithful  to  their  principles,  and  their  conquerors. 
The  happiness  of  his  granddaughter  seemed  to  him  so 
doubtful  if  he  delivered  her  into  the  hands  of  the  proud 
and  haughty  Marquise  de  Cinq-Cygne  that  he  decided 
in  his  own  mind  to  trust  to  the  friend  of  old  age.  Time. 
He  hoped  that  his  bitter  enemy  the  marquise  might 
die,  and,  in  that  case,  he  thought  he  could  win  the 
son  through  his  grandfather,  old  d'Hauteserre,   who 


76  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

was  then  living  at  Cinq-Cygne  and  whom  he  knew  to 
be  accessible  to  the  persuasions  of  money. 

If  this  plan  failed,  and  Cecile  Beauvisage  remained 
unmarried,  he  resolved  as  a  last  resource  to  consult 
his  friend  Gondreville,  who  would,  he  believed,  find  his 
Cecile  a  husband,  after  his  heart  and  his  ambition, 
among  the  dukes  of  the  Empire. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  77 


IX. 

A   STRANGER. 

S^VERiNE  found  her  father  seated  on  a  wooden 
bench  at  the  end  of  his  terrace,  under  a  bower  of 
lilacs  then  in  bloom,  and  taking  his  cofifee ;  for  it 
was  half-past  five  in  the  afternoon.  She  saw,  by  the 
pain  on  her  father's  face,  that  he  had  already  heard 
the  news.  In  fact,  the  old  count  had  sent  a  valet  to 
his  friend,   begging  him  to  come  to  him. 

Up  to  the  present  time,  old  Grevin  had  endeavored 
not  to  encourage  his  daughter's  ambition  too  far ;  but 
now,  in  the  midst  of  the  contradictory  reflections  which 
the  melancholy  death  of  Charles  Keller  caused  him,  his 
secret  escaped  his  lips. 

*'  My  dear  child,"  he  said  to  her,  "I  had  formed  the 
finest  plans  for  your  future.  Cecile  was  to  have  been 
Vicomtesse  Keller,  for  Charles,  by  my  influence,  would 
now  have  been  elected  deputy.  Neither  Gondreville 
nor  his  daughter  Madame  Keller  would  have  refused 
C^cile's  dot  of  sixty  thousand  francs  a  year,  especially 
with  the  prospect  of  the  hundred  thousand  more  which 
she  will  some  day  have  from  you.  You  would  have 
lived  in  Paris  with  your  daughter,  and  played  your 
part  of  mother-in-law  in  the  upper  regions  of  power.*' 

Madame  Beauvisage  made  a  sign  of  satisfaction. 

'*  But  we  are  knocked  down  by  the  death  of  this  charm- 
ing young  man,  to  whom  the  prince  royal  had  already 


78  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

given  his  friendship.  Now  this  Simon  Giguet,  who 
has  thrust  himself  upon  the  scene,  is  a  fool,  and  the 
worst  of  all  fools,  for  he  thinks  himself  an  eagle.  You 
are,  however,  too  intimate  with  the  Giguets  and  the 
Marion  household  not  to  put  the  utmost  politeness  into 
your  refusal  —  but  you  must  refuse  him." 

"  As  usual,  you  and  I  are  of  the  same  opinion, 
father." 

"  You  can  say  that  I  have  otherwise  disposed  of 
Cecile's  hand,  and  that  will  cut  short  all  preposterous 
pretensions  like  that  of  Antonin  Goulard.  Little  Vinet 
may  offer  himself,  and  he  is  preferable  to  the  others 
who  are  smelling  after  the  dot;  he  has  talent,  and 
shrewdness,  and  he  belongs  to  the  Chargeboeufs  by 
his  mother ;  but  he  has  too  much  character  not  to 
rule  his  wife,  and  he  is  young  enough  to  make  himself 
loved.  You  would  perish  between  the  two  sentiments 
—  for  I  know  you  by  heart,  my  child." 

^'I  shall  be  much  embarrassed  this  evening  at  the 
Marions'  to  know  what  to  say,"  remarked  Severine. 

"Well,  then,  my  dear,"  said  her  father,  "send 
Madame  Marion  to  me;    I'll  talk  to  her." 

"I  knew,  father,  that  you  were  thinking  of  our 
future,  but  I  had  no  idea  you  expected  it  to  be  so  bril- 
liant," said  Madame  Beauvisage,  taking  the  hands  of 
the  old  man  and  kissing  them. 

"  I  have  pondered  the  matter  so  deeply,"  said  Gre- 
vin,  "  that  in  1831  I  bought  the  Beauseant  mansion  in 
Paris,  which  you  have  probably  seen." 

Madame  de  Beauvisage  made  a  movement  of  sur- 
prise on  hearing  this  secret,  until  then  so  carefully 
kept,  but  she  did  not  interrupt  her  father. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  79 

*'  It  will  be  my  wedding  present,"  he  went  on.  "  In 
1832  I  let  it  for  seven  years  to  an  Englishman  for 
twenty-four  thousand  francs  a  year,  —  a  pretty  stroke 
of  business;  for  it  only  cost  me  three  hundred  and 
twenty-five  thousand  francs,  of  whicli  I  thus  recover 
nearly  two  hundred  thousand.  The  lease  ends  in  July 
of  this  year." 

Severine  kissed  her  father  on  the  forehead  and  on 
both  cheeks.  This  last  revelation  so  magnified  her 
future  that  she  was  well-nigh  dazzled. 

**  I  shall  advise  my  father,"  she  said  to  herself,  as 
she  recrossed  the  bridge,  ''  to  give  only  the  reversion 
of  that  property  to  his  grandchildren,  and  let  me  have 
the  life-interest  in  it.  I  have  no  idea  of  letting  my 
daughter  and  son-in-law  turn  me  out  of  doors;  they 
must  live  with  me." 

At  dessert,  when  the  two  women-servants  were  safely 
at  their  own  dinner  in  the  kitchen,  and  Madame  Beau- 
visage  was  certain  of  not  being  overheard,  she  thought 
it  advisable  to  give  Cecile  a  little  lecture. 

*'  My  daughter,"  she  said,  "  behave  this  evening 
with  propriety,  like  a  well-bred  girl ;  and  from  this 
day  forth  be  more  sedate.  Do  not  chatter  heedlessly, 
and  never  walk  alone  with  Monsieur  Giguet,  or  Mon- 
sieur Olivier  Vinet,  or  the  sub-prefect,  or  Monsieur 
Martener,  —  in  fact,  with  any  one,  not  even  Achille 
Pigoult.  You  will  not  marry  any  of  the  young  men 
of  Arcis,  or  of  the  department.  Your  fate  is  to  shine 
in  Paris.  Therefore  I  shall  now  give  you  charming 
dresses,  to  accustom  you  to  elegance.  We  can  easily 
find  out  where  the  Princesse  de  Cadignan  and  the 
Marquise  de   Cinq-Cygne   get  their  things.     I  mean 


80  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

that  you  shall  cease  to  look  provincial.  You  must 
practise  the  piano  for  three  hours  every  day.  I  shall 
send  for  Monsieur  Moise  from  Troyes  until  I  know 
what  master  I  ought  to  get  from  Paris.  Your  talents 
must  all  be  developed,  for  you  have  only  one  year 
more  of  girlhood  before  you.  Now  I  have  warned 
you,  and  I  shall  see  how  you  behave  this  evening. 
You  must  manage  to  keep  Simon  at  a  distance,  but 
without  coquetting  with  him." 

"Don't  be  uneasy,  mamma;  I  intend  to  adore  the 
stvdnger" 

These  words,  which  made  Madame  Beauvisage  laush, 
need  some  explanation. 

''  Ha !  I  have  n't  seen  him  yet,"  said  Phileas,  "  but 
everybody  is  talking  about  him.  When  I  want  to  know 
who  he  is,  I  shall  send  the  corporal  or  Monsieur  Gros- 
lier  to  ask  him  for  his  passport." 

There  is  no  little  town  in  France  where,  at  a  given 
time,  the  drama  or  the  comedy  of  the  stranger  is  not 
played.  Often  the  stranger  is  an  adventurer  who 
makes  dupes  and  departs,  carrying  with  him  the  rep- 
utation of  a  woman,  or  the  money  of  a  family. 
Oftener  the  stranger  is  a  real  stranger,  whose  life  re- 
mains mysterious  long  enough  for  the  town  to  busy 
itself  curiously  about  his  words  and  deeds. 

Now  the  probable  accession  to  power  of  Simon 
Giguet  was  not  the  only  serious  event  that  was  hap- 
pening in  Arcis.  For  the  last  two  days  the  attention 
of  the  little  town  had  been  focussed  on  a  personage 
just  arrived,  who  proved  to  be  the  first  Unknown  of 
the  present  generation.  This  stranger  was  at  this 
moment  the  subject  of  conversation  in  every  house- 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  81 

hold  in  the  place.  He  was  the  beam  fallen  from 
heaven  into  the  city  of  the  frogs. 

The  situation  of  Arcis-snr-Aube  explains  the  effect 
which  the  arrival  of  a  stranger  was  certain  to  produce. 
About  eighteen  miles  from  Troyes,  on  the  high-road 
to  Paris,  opposite  to  a  farm  called  "  La  Belle  Etoile," 
a  county  road  branches  off  from  the  main  road,  and 
leads  to  Arcis,  crossing  the  vast  plains  where  the  Seine 
cuts  a  narrow  green  valley  bordered  with  poplars,  which 
stand  out  upon  the  whiteness  of  the  chalk  soil  of 
Champagne.  The  main  road  from  Arcis  to  Troyes  is 
eighteen  miles  in  length,  and  makes  the  arch  of  a  bow, 
the  extremities  of  which  are  Troyes  and  Arcis,  so  that 
the  shortest  route  from  Paris  to  Arcis  is  by  the  county 
road  which  turns  off,  as  we  have  said,  near  the  Belle 
Etoile.  The  Aube  is  navigable  only  from  Arcis  to 
its  mouth.  Therefore  this  town,  standing  eighteen 
miles  from  a  high-road,  and  separated  from  Troyes  by 
monotonous  plains,  is  isolated  more  or  less,  and  has 
but  little  commerce  or  transportation  either  by  laud  or 
water.  Arcis  is,  in  fact,  a  town  completely  isolated, 
where  no  travellers  pass,  and  is  attached  to  Troyes 
and  La  Belle  fitoile  by  stage-coaches  only.  All  the 
inhabitants  know  each  other;  they  even  know  the 
commercial  travellers  who  come,  now  and  then,  on 
business  from  tlie  large  Parisian  houses.  Thus,  as  in 
all  provincial  towns  in  a  like  position,  a  stranger,  if  he 
stayed  two  days,  would  wag  the  tongues  and  excite 
the  imaginations  of  the  whole  community  without  his 
name  or  his  business  being  known. 

Now,  Arcis  being  still  in  a  state  of  tranquillity  three 
days  before  the  morning  when,  by  the  will  of  the  cre- 

6 


82  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

ator  of  so  many  histories,  the  present  tale  begins,  there 
was  seen- to  arrive  by  the  county  road  a  stranger, 
driving  a  handsome  tilbury  drawn  by  a  valuable  horse, 
and  accompanied  by  a  tiny  groom,  no  bigger  than  my 
fist,  mounted  on  a  saddle-horse.  The  coach,  connect- 
ing with  the  diligences  to  Troyes,  had  brought  from 
La  Belle  Etoile  three  trunks  coming  from  Paris,  marked 
with  no  name,  but  belonging  to  this  stranger,  who  took 
up  his  quarters  at  the  Mulct  inn.  Every  one  in  Arcis 
supposed,  on  the  first  evening,  that  this  personage  had 
come  with  the  intention  of  buying  the  estate  of  Arcis ; 
and  much  was  said  in  all  households  about  the  future 
owner  of  the  chateau.  The  tilbury,  the  traveller,  his 
horses,  his  servant,  one  and  all  appeared  to  belong  to 
a  man  who  had  dropped  upon  Arcis  from  the  highest 
social  sphere. 

The  stranger,  no  doubt  fatigued,  did  not  show  him- 
self for  a  time ;  perhaps  he  spent  part  of  the  day  in 
arranging  himself  in  the  rooms  he  had  chosen,  an- 
nouncing his  intention  of  staying  a  certain  time.  He 
requested  to  see  the  stable  where  his  horses  were  to 
be  kept,  showed  himself  very  exacting,  and  insisted 
that  they  should  be  placed  in  stalls  apart  from  those 
of  the  innkeeper's  horses,  and  from  those  of  guests 
who  might  come  later.  In  consequence  of  such  sin- 
gular demands,  the  landlord  of  the  h6tel  du  Mulct 
considered  his  guest  to  be  an  Englishman. 

On  the  evening  of  the  first  day  several  attempts 
were  made  at  the  Mulct  by  inquisitive  persons  to  satisfy 
their  curiosity  ;  but  no  light  whatever  could  be  obtained 
from  the  little  groom,  who  evaded  all  inquiries,  not  by 
refusals  or  by  silence,  but  by  sarcasms  which  seemed 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  83 

to  be  beyond  his  years  and  to  prove  him  a  corrupt 
little  mortal. 

After  making  a  careful  toilet  and  dining  at  six 
o'clock,  the  stranger  mounted  a  horse,  and,  followed 
by  his  groom,  rode  off  along  the  road  to  Brienne,  not 
returning  till  a  very  late  hour  to  the  Mulet.  The 
landlord,  his  wife,  and  her  maids  had  meantime  gained 
no  information  from  a  careful  examination  of  his 
trunks,  and  the  articles  about  his  rooms,  as  to  the 
projects  or  the  condition  of  their  mysterious  inmate. 
'  On  the  stranger's  return  the  mistress  of  the  house 
carried  up  to  him  the  book  in  which,  according  to 
police  regulations,  he  was  required  to  inscribe  his 
name,  rank,  the  object  of  his  journey,  and  the  place 
from  which  he  came. 

*'I  shall  write  nothing,"  he  said  to  the  mistress  of 
the  inn.  ''If  any  one  questions  you,  you  can  say  I 
refused ;  and  you  may  send  the  sub-prefect  to  see  me, 
for  I  have  no  passport.  I  dare  say  that  many  persona 
will  make  inquiries  about  me,  madame,  and  you  can 
tell  them  just  what  you  like.  I  wish  you  to  know 
nothing  about  me.  If  you  worry  me  on  this  point,  I 
shall  go  to  the  H6tel  de  la  Poste  on  the  Place  du  Pont 
and  remain  there  the  fortnight  I  propose  to  spend  here. 
I  should  be  sorry  for  that,  because  I  know  that  you 
:ire  the  sister  of  Gothard,  one  of  the  heroes  of  the 
Simeuse  affair." 

''  Enough,  monsieur,"  said  the  sister  of  the  steward 
of  Cinq-Cygne. 

After  such  a  beginning,  the  stranger  kept  the  mis- 
tress of  the  house  a  whole  hour  and  made  her  tell  him 
all  she  knew  of  Arcis,  of  its  fortunes,  its  interests, 


84  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

and  its  functionaries.  The  next  day  he  disappeared 
on  horseback,  followed  by  his  tiger,  returning  at 
midnight. 

We  can  now  understand  Mademoiselle  Cecile's  little 
joke,  which  Madame  Beauvisage  thought  to  be  without 
foundation.  Beauvisage  and  Cecile,  surprised  by  the 
order  of  the  day  promulgated  by  Severine,  were  en- 
chanted. While  his  wife  went  to  dress  for  Madame 
Marion's  reception,  the  father  listened  to  the  many 
conjectures  it  was  natural  a  girl  should  make  in  such 
a  case.  Then,  fatigued  with  his  day,  he  went  to  bed 
as  soon  as  his  wife  and  daughter  had  departed. 

As  may  readily  be  supposed  by  those  who  know 
anything  of  country  towns,  a  crowd  of  persons  flocked 
to  Madame  Marion's  that  evening.  The  triumph  of 
Giguet  junior  was  thought  to  be  a  victory  won  against 
the  Comte  de  Gondreville,  and  to  insure  forever  the 
independence  of  Arcis  in  the  matter  of  elections. 
The  news  of  the  death  of  poor  Charles  Keller  was 
regarded  as  a  judgment  from  heaven,  intended  to 
silence  all  rivalries. 

Antonin  Goulard,  Frederic  Marest,  Olivier  Vinet, 
and  Monsieur  Martener,  the  authorities  who,  until 
then,  had  frequented  this  salon  (the  prevailing  opinions 
of  which  did  not  seem  to  them  contrary  to  the  gov- 
ernment created  by  the  popular  will  in  July,  1830), 
came  as  usual,  possessed  by  curiosity  to  see  what  atti- 
tude the  Beauvisage  family  would  take  under  the  cir- 
cumstances. 

The  salon,  restored  to  its  usual  condition,  showed 
no  signs  of  the  meeting  which  appeared  to  have  settled 
the  destiny  of  Simon  Giguet.     By  eight  o'clock  four 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  85 

card-tables,  each  with  four  players,  were  under  way. 
The  smaller  salon  and  the  dining-room  were  full  of 
people.  Never,  except  on  grand  occasions,  such  as 
balls  and  fete-days,  had  Madame  Marion  seen  such  an 
influx  at  the  door  of  her  salon,  forming  as  it  were  the 
tail  of  a  comet. 

*'  It  is  the  dawn  of  power,"  said  Olivier  Vinet  to 
the  mistress  of  the  house,  showing  her  this  spectacle, 
so  gratifying  to  the  heart  of  a  person  who  delighted 
in  receiving  company. 

"  No  one  knows  what  there  is  in  Simon,"  replied  the 
mother.  *'  We  live  in  times  when  young  men  who 
persevere  and  are  moral  and  upright  can  aspire  to 
everything." 

This  answer  was  made,  not  so  much  to  Vinet  as  to 
Madame  Beauvisage,  who  had  entered  the  room  with 
her  daughter  and  was  now  beginning  to  offer  her  con- 
gratulations on  the  event.  In  order  to  escape  indi- 
rect appeals  and  pointed  interpretations  of  careless 
words,  Madame  Beauvisage  took  a  vacant  place  at  a 
whist-table  and  devoted  her  mind  to  the  winning  of 
one  hundred  fishes.  One  hundred  fishes,  or  counters, 
made  fifty  sous !  When  a  player  had  lost  that  sum  it 
was  talked  of  in  Arcis  for  a  couple  of  days. 

C^cile  went  to  talk  with  Mademoiselle  Mollot,  one 
of  her  good  friends,  appearing  to  be  seized  with  re- 
doubled affection  for  her.  Mademoiselle  Mollot  was 
the  beauty  of  Arcis,  just  as  C^cile  was  the  heiress. 
Monsieur  Mollot,  clerk  of  the  court,  lived  on  the 
Grande-Place  in  a  house  constructed  in  the  same 
manner  as  that  of  Beauvisage  on  the  Place  du  Pont. 
Madame  Mollot,  forever  seated  at  the  window  of  her 


86  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

salon  on  the  ground-floor,  was  attacked  (as  the  result 
of  that  situation)  by  intense,  acute,  insatiable  curi- 
osity, now  become  a  chronic  and  inveterate  disease. 
The  moment  a  peasant  entered  the  square  from  the 
road  to  Brienne  she  saw  him,  and  watched  to  see  what 
business  could  have  brought  him  to  Arcis ;  she  had  no 
peace  of  mind  until  that  peasant  was  explained.  She 
spent  her  life  in  judging  the  events,  men,  things,  and 
households  of  Arcis. 

The  ambition  of  the  house  of  Mollot,  father,  mother, 
and  daughter,  was  to  marry  Ernestine  (an  only 
daughter)  to  Antonin  Goulard.  Consequently  the 
refusal  of  the  Beauvisage  parents  to  entertain  the 
proposals  of  the  sub-prefect  had  tightened  the  bonds 
of  friendship  between  the  two  families. 

"There's  an  impatient  man!"  said  Ernestine  to 
Cecile,  indicating  Simon  Giguet.  "  He  wants  to  come 
and  talk  with  us ;  but  every  one  who  comes  in  feels 
bound  to  congratulate  him.  I  've  heard  him  say  fifty 
times  already :  '  It  is,  I  think,  less  to  me  than  to  my 
father  that  this  compliment  of  my  fellow-citizens  has 
been  paid ;  but,  in  any  case,  pray  believe  that  I  shall 
be  devoted  not  only  to  our  general  interests  but  to 
yours  individually.'  I  can  guess  those  words  by  the 
motion  of  his  lips,  and  all  the  while  he  is  looking  at 
you  with  an  air  of  martyrdom." 

''Ernestine,"  replied  Cecile,  "don't  leave  me  the 
whole  evening  ;  I  don't  want  to  listen  to  his  proposals 
made  under  cover  of  '  alases ! '  and  mingled  with 
sighs." 

"  Don't  you  want  to  be  the  wife  of  a  Keeper  of  the 
Seals?" 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  87 

''  Ah!  that's  all  nonsense,"  said  C^cile,  laughing. 

**  But  I  assure  you,"  persisted  Ernestine,  *'  that  just 
before  you  came  in  Monsieur  Godivet,  the  registrar,  was 
declaring  with  enthusiasm  that  Simon  would  be  Keeper 
of  the  Seals  in  three  years." 

''  Do  they  count  on  the  influence  of  the  Comte  de 
Gondreville?"  asked  the  sub-prefect,  coming  up  to  the 
two  girls  and  guessing  that  they  were  making  fun  of 
his  friend  Giguet. 

"  Ah !  Monsieur  Antonin,"  said  the  handsome  Ernes- 
tine, ''you  who  promised  my  mother  to  find  out  all 
about  the  stranger^  what  have  you  heard  about  him  ?  " 

*'  The  events  of  to-day.  Mademoiselle,  are  so  much 
more  important,"  said  Antonin,  taking  a  seat  beside 
Cecile,  like  a  diplomat  delighted  to  escape  general  at- 
tention by  conversing  with  two  girls.  ''  All  my  career 
as  sub-prefect  or  prefect  is  at  stake." 

*'  What !  I  thought  you  allowed  your  friend  Simon 
to  be  nominated  unanimously." 

*^  Simon  is  my  friend,  but  the  government  is  my 
master,  and  I  expect  to  do  my  best  to  prevent  Simon 
from  being  elected.  And  here  comes  Madame  Mollot, 
who  owes  me  her  concurrence  as  the  wife  of  a  man 
whose  functions  attach  him  to  the  government." 

'*  I  am  sure  we  ask  nothing  better  than  to  be  on 
your  side,"  replied  the  sheriff's  wife.  ''Mollot  has 
told  me,"  she  continued  in  a  low  voice,  ''  what  took 
place  here  to-day  —  it  is  pitiable !  Only  one  man 
showed  talent,  and  that  was  Achille  Pigoult.  Every- 
body agrees  that  he  would  make  a  fine  orator  in  the 
Chamber;  and  therefore,  though  he  has  nothing,  and 
my  daughter  has  a  dot  of  sixty  thousand  francs,  not  to 


88  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

speak  of  what,  as  an  only  child,  she  will  inherit  from 
us  and  also  from  her  uncle  at  Mollot  and  from  my  aunt 
Lambert  at  Troyes,  —  well,  I  declare  to  you  that  if 
Monsieur  Achille  Pigoult  did  us  the  honor  to  ask  her  to 
wife,  I  should  give  her  to  him  ;  yes,  1  should  —  pro- 
vided always  she  liked  him.  But  the  silly  little  goose 
wants  to  marry  as  she  pleases ;  it  is  Mademoiselle 
Beauvisage  who  puts  such  notions  into  her  head." 

The  sub-prefect  received  this  double  broadside  like  a 
man  who  knows  he  has  thirty  thousand  francs  a  year, 
and  expects  a  prefecture. 

"  Mademoiselle  is  right,"  he  said,  looking  at  Cecile; 
''  she  is  rich  enough  to  make  a  marriage  of  love." 

''  Don't  let  us  talk  about  marriage,"  said  Ernestine; 
''  it  saddens  my  poor  dear  Cecile,  who  was  owning  to 
me  just  now  that  in  order  not  to  be  married  for  her 
money,  but  for  herself,  she  should  like  an  affair  with 
some  stranger  who  knew  nothing  of  Arcis  and  her 
future  expectations  as  Lady  Croesus,  and  would  spin 
her  a  romance  to  end  in  true  love  and  a  marriage." 

' '  That 's  a  very  pretty  idea !  "  cried  Olivier  Vinet, 
joining  the  group  of  young  ladies  in  order  to  get  away 
from  the  partisans  of  Simon,  the  idol  of  the  day.  ''  I 
always  knew  that  Mademoiselle  had  as  much  sense  as 
money." 

"•  And,"  continued  Ernestine,  '*  she  has  selected  for 
the  hero  of  her  romance  —  " 

''Oh!"  interrupted  Madame  Mollot,  ''an  old  man 
of  fifty!— fie!" 

"How  do  you  know  he  is  fifty?"  asked  Olivier 
Vinet,  laughing. 

"How?"   replied   Madame    Mollot.       "Why,   this 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  89 

morning  I  was  so  puzzled  that  I  got  out  my  opera- 
glass  —  " 

''  Bravo !  "  cried  the  superintendent  of  ponta  et  ckaus- 
sees,  who  was  paying  court  to  the  mother  to  obtain  the 
daughter. 

''  And  so/'  continued  Madame  MoUot,  ''  I  was  able 
to  see  him  shaving ;  with  such  elegant  razors !  — 
mounted  in  gold,  or  silver-gilt !  " 

*'Gold!  gold,  of  course!"  said  Vinet.  ''When 
things  are  unknown  they  should  always  be  imagined  of 
the  finest  quality.  Consequently  I,  not  having  seen 
this  gentleman,  am  perfectly  sure  that  he  is  at  least  a 
count." 

This  speech  created  a  laugh  ;  and  the  laughing  group 
excited  the  jealousy  of  a  group  of  dowagers  and  the 
attention  of  a  troop  of  men  in  black  who  surrounded 
Simon  Giguet.  As  for  the  latter,  he  was  chafing  in 
despair  at  not  being  able  to  lay  his  fortune  and  his 
future  at  the  feet  of  the  rich  Cecile. 

*'  Yes,"  continued  Vinet,  "  a  man  distinguished  for 
his  birth,  for  his  manners,  his  fortune,  his  equipages,  — 
a  lion,  a  dandy,  a  yellow-kidglover !  " 

'' Monsieur  Olivier,"  said  Ernestine,  *' he  drives  the 
prettiest  tilbury  you  ever  saw." 

*'  What?  Antonin,  you  never  told  me  he  had  a  til- 
bury when  we  were  talking  about  that  conspirator  this 
morning.  A  tilbury!  Why,  that's  an  extenuating 
circumstance ;  he  can't  be  a  republican." 

"  Mesdemoiselles,  there  is  nothing  that  I  will  not  do 
in  the  interests  of  your  amusement,"  said  Antonin 
Goulard.  '*  I  will  instantly  proceed  to  ascertain  if  this 
individual  is  a  count,  and  if  he  is,  what  kind  of  count." 


90  The  Dejputy  of  Arcis. 

''  You  can  make  a  report  upon  him,"  said  the  super- 
intendent of  bridges. 

*'For  the  use  of  all  future  sub-prefects, '^  added 
Olivier  Vinet. 

"  How  can  you  do  it?"  asked  Madame  MoUot. 

*'  Oh  !  "  replied  the  sub-prefect,  "  ask  Mademoiselle 
Beauvisage  whom  she  would  accept  as  her  husband 
among  all  of  us  here  present;  she  will  not  answer. 
Allow  me  the  same  discretion.  Mesderaoiselles,  restrain 
your  anxiety  ;  in  ten  minutes  you  shall  know  whether 
the  Unknown  is  a  count  or  a  commercial  traveller." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  91 


THE  REVELATIONS  OF  AN  OPERA-GLASS. 

Antonin  Goulard  left  the  little  group  of  yoxxng 
ladies,  in  which,  besides  Cecile  and  Ernestine,  were 
Mademoiselle  Berton,  daughter  of  the  tax-collector,  — 
an  insignificant  young  person  who  played  the  part  of 
satellite  to  Cecile,  —  and  Mademoiselle  Herbelot,  sister 
of  the  second  notary  of  Arcis,  an  old  maid  of  thirty, 
soured,  affected,  and  dressed  like  all  old  maids ;  for 
she  wore,  over  a  bombazine  gown,  an  embroidered 
fichu,  the  corners  of  which,  gathered  to  the  front  of  the 
bodice,  were  knotted  together  after  the  well-known 
fashion  under  the  Terror. 

"  Julien,"  said  the  sub-prefect  to  his  valet,  who  was 
waiting  in  the  antechamber,  ''you  who  served  six 
years  at  Gondreville  ought  to  know  how  a  count's  coro- 
net is  made.'* 

"  Yes,  monsieur;  it  has  pearls  on  its  nine  points." 

*'  Very  good.  Go  to  the  Mulct,  and  try  to  clap  your 
eye  on  the  tilbury  of  the  gentleman  who  is  stopping 
there,  and  then  come  and  tell  me  what  is  painted  on 
it.  Do  your  business  thoroughly,  and  bring  me  all  the 
gossip  of  the  inn.  If  you  see  the  little  groom,  ask 
him  at  what  hour  to-morrow  his  master  can  receive 
the  sub-prefect  —  in  case  you  find  the  nine  pearls. 
Don't  drink,  don't  gossip  yourself,  and  come  back 


92  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

quickly ;  and  as  soon  as  you  get  back  let  me  know  it 
by  coming  to  the  door  of  the  salon." 

"  Yes,  monsieur." 

The  Mulet  inn,  as  we  have  already  said,  stands  on 
the  square,  at  the  opposite  corner  to  the  garden  wall 
of  the  Marion  estate  on  the  other  side  of  the  road  lead- 
ing to  Brienne.  Therefore  the  solution  of  the  problem 
could  be  rapid.  Antonin  Goulard  returned  to  his  place 
by  Cecile  to  await  results. 

*'  We  talked  so  much  about  that  stranger  yesterday 
that  I  dreamed  of  him  all  night,"  said  Madame  Mollot. 

'^Ha!  ha!  do  you  still  dream  of  unknown  heroes, 
fair  lady?"  said  Vinet. 

''You  are  very  impertinent;  if  I  chose  I  could 
make  you  dream  of  me,"  she  retorted.  ''  So  this 
morning  when  I  rose  — " 

It  may  not  be  useless  to  say  that  Madame  Mollot 
was  considered  a  clever  woman  in  Arcis ;  that  is,  she 
expressed  herself  fluently  and  abused  that  advantage. 
A  Parisian,  wandering  by  chance  into  these  regions, 
like  the  Unknown,  would  have  thought  her  excessively 
garrulous. 

"  —  I  was,  naturally,  making  my  toilet,  and  as  I 
looked  mechanically  about  me  —  " 

"  Through  the  window?"  asked  Antonin. 

"Certainly;  my  dressing-room. opens  on  the  street. 
Now  you  know,  of  course,  that  Poupart  has  put  the 
stranger  into  one  of  the  rooms  exactly  opposite  to 
mine  —  " 

''  One  room,  mamma ! "  interrupted  Ernestine. 
"  The  count  occupies  three  rooms  !  The  little  groom, 
dressed  all  in  black,  is  in  the  first.     They  have  made  a 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  93 

salon  of  the  next,  and  the  Unknown  sleeps  in  the 
third." 

'*  Then  he  has  half  the  rooms  in  the  inn,"  remarked 
Mademoiselle  Herbelot. 

''  Well,  young  ladies,  and  what  has  that  to  do  with 
his  person?"  said  Madame  Mollot,  sharply,  not 
pleased  at  the  interruption.  ''I  am  talking  of  the 
man  himself  —  " 

''Don't  interrupt  the  orator,"  put  in  Vinet. 

*'  As  I  was  stooping  —  " 

''  Seated?  "  asked  Antonin. 

''  Madame  was  of  course  as  she  naturally  would  be,  — 
making  her  toilet  and  looking  at  the  Mulet,"  said  Vinet. 

Jn  the  provinces  such  jokes  are  prized,  for  people 
have  so  long  said  everything  to  each  other  that  they 
have  recourse  at  last  to  the  sort  of  nonsense  our 
fathers  indulged  in  before  the  introduction  of  English 
hypocrisy,  —  one  of  those  products  against  which 
custom-houses  are  powerless. 

"Don't  interrupt  the  orator,"  repeated  Cecile  Beau- 
visage  to  Vinet,  with  whom  she  exchanged  a  smile. 

"  My  eyes  involuntarily  fell  on  the  window  of  the 
room  in  which  the  stranger  had  slept  the  night  before. 
I  don't  know  what  time  he  went  to  bed,  although  I  was 
awake  till  past  midnight ;  but  I  have  the  misfortune 
to  be  married  to  a  man  who  snores  fit  to  crack  the 
planks  and  the  rafters.  If  I  fall  asleep  first,  oh !  I 
sleep  so  sound  nothing  can  wake  me ;  but  if  Mollot 
drops  off  first  my  night  is  ruined  — " 

''Don't  you  ever  go  off  together?"  said  Achilla 
Pigoult,  joining  the  group.  "  I  see  you  are  talking  of 
sleep." 


94  The  Dejputy  of  Arcis, 

''Hush,  naughty  boy!"  replied  Madame  Mollot, 
graciously. 

''  Do  you  kuow  what  they  mean  ?  "  whispered  Cecile 
to  Ernestine. 

"  At  any  rate,  he  was  not  in  at  one  o'clock  in  the 
morning,"  continued  Madame  Mollot. 

"Then  he  defrauded  you!  —  came  home  without 
your  knowing  it !  "  said  Achille  Pigoult.  "  Ha !  that 
man  is  sly  indeed ;  he  '11  put  us  all  in  his  pouch  and 
sell  us  in  the  market-place." 

''To  whom?  "  asked  Vinet. 

"Oh!  to  a  project!  to  an  idea!  to  a  system!" 
replied  the  notary,  to  whom  Olivier  smiled  with  a  know- 
ing air. 

"Imagine  my  surprise,"  continued  Madame  Mollot, 
"  when  I  saw  a  stuff,  a  material,  of  splendid  magnifi- 
cence, most  beautiful!  dazzling!  I  said  to  myself, 
'  That  must  be  a  dressing-gown  of  the  spun-glass  mate- 
rial I  have  sometimes  seen  in  exhibitions  of  industrial 
products.'  So  I  fetched  my  opera-glass  to  examine  it. 
But,  good  gracious  !  what  do  you  think  I  saw?  Above 
the  dressing-gown,  where  the  head  ought  to  have  been, 
I  saw  an  enormous  mass,  something  like  a  knee — I 
can't  tell  you  how  my  curiosity  was  excited." 

"  I  can  conceive  it,"  said  Antonin. 

"  No,  you  can  not  conceive  it,"  said  Madame  Mollot; 
"  for  this  knee  —  " 

"Ah!  I  understand,"  cried  Olivier  Vinet,  laughing; 
"  the  Unknown  was  also  making  his  toilet,  and  you 
saw  his  two  knees." 

"No,  no!"  cried  Madame  Mollot;  "you  are  put- 
ting incongruities  into  my  mouth.     The  stranger  was 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  95 

standing  up ;  he  held  a  sponge  in  his  hand  above  an 
immense  basin,  and  —  none  of  your  jokes,  Monsieur 
Olivier !  —  it  was  n't  his  knee,  it  was  his  head  !  He 
was  washing  his  bald  head  ;  he  has  n't  a  spear  of  hair 
upon  it." 

'^  Impudent  man!"  said  Antonin.  '*  He  certainly 
can't  have  come  with  ideas  of  marriage  in  that  head. 
Here  we  must  have  hair  in  order  to  be  married.  That's 
essential.'^ 

''I  am  therefore  right  in  saying  that  our  Unknown 
visitor  must  be  fifty  years  old.  Nobody  ever  takes  to 
a  wig  before  that  time  of  life.  After  a  time,  when  his 
toilet  was  finished,  he  opened  his  window  and  looked 
out ;  and  then  he  wore  a  splendid  head  of  black  hair. 
He  turned  his  eyeglass  full  on  me,  —  for  by  that 
time,  I  was  in  my  balcony.  Therefore,  my  dear  Cecile, 
you  see  for  yourself  you  can't  take  that  man  for  the 
hero  of  your  romance." 

"  Why  not?  Men  of  fifty  are  not  to  be  despised,  if 
they  are  counts,"  said  Ernestine. 

**  Heavens!  what  has  age  to  do  with  it?"  said 
Mademoiselle  Herbelot. 

''  Provided  one  gets  a  husband,"  added  Vinet,  whose 
cold  maliciousness  made  him  feared. 

"Yes,"  replied  the  old  maid,  feeling  the  cut,  *'I 
should  prefer  a  man  of  fifty,  indulgent,  kind,  and 
considerate,  to  a  young  man  without  a  heart,  whose 
wit  would  bite  every  one,  even  his  wife." 

''  This  is  all  very  well  for  conversation,"  retorted 
Vinet,  ''but  in  order  to  love  the  man  of  fifty  and  reject 
the  other,  it  is  necessary  to  have  the  opportunity  to 
choose. " 


96  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

"  Oh !  "  said  Madame  Mollot,  in  order  to  stop  this 
passage  at  arms  between  the  old  maid  and  Vinet,  who 
always  went  too  far,  "  when  a  woman  has  had  experi- 
ence of  life  she  knows  that  a  husband  of  fifty  or  one 
of  twenty-five  is  absolutely  the  same  thing  if  she 
merely  respects  him.  The  important  things  in  mar- 
riage are  the  benefits  to  be  derived  from  it.  If  Made- 
moiselle Beauvisage  wants  to  go  to  Paris  and  shine 
there  —  and  in  her  place  I  should  certainly  feel  so  — 
she  ought  not  to  take  a  husband  in  Arcis.  If  I  had  the 
fortune  she  will  have,  I  should  give  my  hand  to  a  count, 
to  a  man  who  would  put  me  in  a  high  social  position, 
and  I  should  n't  ask  to  see  the  certificate  of  his  birth." 

"  It  would  satisfy  you  to  see  his  toilet,"  whispered 
Vinet  in  her  ear. 

''  But  the  king  makes  counts,"  said  Madame  Marion, 
who  had  now  joined  the  group  and  was  surveying  the 
bevy  of  young  ladies. 

"  Ah  !  madame,"  remarked  Vinet,  ''  but  some  young 
girls  prefer  their  counts  already  made." 

"Well,  Monsieur  Antonin,"  said  Cecile,  laughing  at 
Vinet's  sarcasm.  ''  Your  ten  minutes  have  expired, 
and  you  haven't  told  us  whether  the  Unknown  is  a 
count  or  not." 

''  I  shall  keep  my  promise,"  replied  the  sub-prefect, 
perceiving  at  that  moment  the  head  of  his  valet  in  the 
doorway ;  and  again  he  left  his  place  beside  Cecile. 

"  You  are  talking  of  the  stranger,"  said  Madame 
Marion.     ''  Is  anything  really  known  about  him?  " 

'*  No,  madame,"  replied  Achille  Pigoult ;  "  but  he  is, 
without  knowing  it,  like  the  clown  of  a  circus,  the 
centre  of  the  eyes  of  the  two  thousand  inhabitants  of 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  97 

this  town.     I  know  one  thing  about  him,"  added  the 
little  notary. 

''  Oh,  tell  us.  Monsieur  Achille !  "  cried  Ernestine, 
eagerly. 

''  His  tiger's  name  is  Paradise !  " 

"  Paradise  !  "  echoed  every  one  included  in  the  little 
circle. 

"Can  a  man  be  called  Paradise?"  asked  Madame 
Herbelot,  who  had  joined  her  sister-in-law. 

''  It  tends  to  prove,"  continued  the  notary,  '*  that 
the  master  is  an  angel ;  for  when  his  tiger  follows  him  — 
you  understand." 

"It  is  the  road  of  Paradise!  very  good,  that,"  said 
Madame  Marion,  anxious  to  flatter  Achille  Pigoult  in 
the  interests  of  her  nephew. 

"  Monsieur,"  said  Antonin's  valet  in  the  dining-room, 
"  the  tilbury  has  a  coat  of  arms  —  " 

"  Coat  of  arms  !  " 

' '  Yes,  and  droll  enough  they  are !  There  *s  a  coronet 
with  nine  points  and  pearls  —  " 

"Then  he's  a  count!" 

"  And  a  monster  with  wings,  flying  like  a  postilion 
who  has  dropped  something.  And  here  is  what  is 
written  on  the  belt,"  added  the  man,  taking  a  paper 
from  his  pocket.  ''Mademoiselle  Auicette,  the  Prin- 
cesse  de  Cadignan's  lady's  maid,  who  came  in  a  car- 
riage "  (the  Cinq-Cygne  carriage  before  the  door  of  the 
Mulct!)  "to  bring  a  letter  to  the  gentleman,  wrote  it 
down  for  me." 

"  Give  it  to  me." 

The  sub-prefect  read  the  words:  Quo  me  trahit 
fortuna. 


98  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

Though  he  was  not  strong  enough  in  French  blazon 
to  know  the  house  that  bore  that  device,  Antonin  felt 
sure  that  the  Cinq-Cygnes  would  not  send  their  chariot, 
nor  the  Princesse  de  Cadignan  a  missive  by  her  maid, 
except  to  a  person  of  the  highest  nobility. 

*'Ha!  so  you  know  the  maid  of  the  Princesse  de 
Cadignan !  happy  man  !  "  said  Antonin. 

Julien,  a  young  countryman,  after  serving  six  months 
in  the  household  of  the  Comte  de  Gondreville,  had 
entered  the  service  of  the  sub-prefect,  who  wanted  a 
servant  of  the  right  style. 

''But,  monsieur,  Anicette  is  my  father's  god- 
daughter. Papa,  who  wanted  to  do  well  by  the  girl, 
whose  father  was  dead,  sent  her  to  a  dressmaker  in 
Paris  because  my  mother  could  not  endure  her." 

"Is  she  pretty?" 

''Rather;  the  proof  is  that  she  got  into  trouble  in 
Paris;  but  finall}',  as  she  has  talent  and  can  make 
gowns  and  dress  hair,  she  got  a  place  with  the 
princess." 

"  What  did  she  tell  you  about  Cinq-Cygne?  Is  there 
much  company  ?  " 

"  A  great  deal,  monsieur.  There 's  the  princess  and 
Monsieur  d'Arthez,  the  Due  de  Maufrigneuse  and  the 
duchess  and  the  young  marquis.  In  fact  the  chateau 
is  full.  They  expect  Mon seigneur  the  Bishop  of 
Troyes  to-night." 

' '  Monseigneur  Troubert !  I  should  like  to  know  how 
long  he  is  going  to  stay." 

"  Anicette  thinks  for  some  time ;  and  she  believes  he 
is  coming  to  meet  the  gentleman  who  is  now  at  the 
Mulct.     They  expect  more  company.     The  coachman 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  99 

told  me  they  were  talking  a  great  deal  about  the  election. 
Monsieur  le  president  Michu  is  expected  in  a  few  days." 

*^  Try  to  bring  that  lady's  maid  into  town  on  pretence 
of  shopping.     Have  you  any  designs  upon  her?  " 

'Mf  she  has  any  savings  I  don't  know  but  what  I 
might.     She  is  a  sly  one,  though." 

''  Tell  her  to  come  and  see  you  at  the  sub-prefecture." 

"  Yes,  monsieur.     I  '11  go  and  tell  her  now.'' 

*' Don't  say  anything  about  me,  or  she  mi^ht  not 
come." 

"  Ah !  monsieur  ;  have  n't  I  served  at  Gondreville?  " 

"You  don't  know  why  they  sent  that  message  from 
Cinq-Cygne  at  this  hour,  do  you?  It  is  half-past  nine 
o'clock." 

'^  It  must  have  been  something  pressing.  The  gentle- 
man had  only  just  returned  from  Gondreville." 

"  Gondreville  !  —  has  he  been  to  Gondreville?  " 

"  He  dined  there,  monsieur.  If  you  went  to  the 
Mulct  you  'd  laugh !  The  little  tiger  is,  saving  your 
presence,  as  drunk  as  a  fiddler.  He  drank  such  a  lot 
of  champagne  in  the  servants'  hall  that  he  can't  stand 
on  his  legs ;  they  have  been  filling  him  for  fun." 

"And  the  count?" 

"The  count  liad  gone  to  bed ;  but  as  soon  as  he  re- 
ceived the  letter  he  got  up.  He  is  now  dressing  him- 
self ;  and  they  are  putting  the  horse  in  the  tilbury. 
The  count  is  to  spend  the  night  at  Cinq-Cygne." 

"  He  must  be  some  great  personage." 

"Oh,  yes,  monsieur;  for  Gothard,  the  steward  of 
Cinq-Cygne,  came  this  morning  to  see  his  brother-in-law 
Poupart,  and  warned  him  to  be  very  discreet  about  the 
gentleman  and  to  serve  him  like  a  king." 


100  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

"Vinet  must  be  right,"  thought  the  sub-prefect. 
"Can  there  be  some  cabal  on  foot?" 

"It  was  Due  Georges  de  Maufrigneuse  who  sent 
Gothard  to  the  Mulct.  Poupart  came  to  the  meeting 
here  this  morning  only  because  the  gentleman  wished 
hhn  to  do  so ;  if  he  had  sent  him  to  Paris,  he  *d  go. 
Gothard  told  Poupart  to  keep  silent  about  the  gentle- 
man, and  to  fool  all  inquisitive  people." 

"  If  you  can  get  Anicette  here,  don't  fail  to  let  me 
know,"  said  Antonin. 

"But  I  could  see  her  at  Cinq-Cygne  if  monsiem 
would  send  me  to  his  house  at  Val-Preux." 

"That's  an  idea.  You  might  profit  by  the  chariot 
to  get  there.  But  what  reason  could  you  give  to  the 
little  groom  ?  " 

"  He  's  a  madcap,  that  boy,  monsieur.  Would  you 
believe  it,  drunk  as  he  is,  he  has  just  mounted  his 
master's  thoroughbred,  a  horse  that  can  do  twenty 
miles  an  hour,  and  started  for  Troyes  with  a  letter  in 
order  that  it  may  reach  Paris  to-morrow !  And  only 
nine  years  and  a  half  old!  What  will  he  be  at 
twenty?" 

The  sub-prefect  listened  mechanically  to  these  re- 
marks. Julien  gossiped  on,  his  master  listening, 
absorbed  in  thought  about  the  stranger. 

"  Wait  here,"  he  said  to  the  man  as  he  turned  with 
slow  steps  to  re-enter  the  salon.  ''  What  a  mess  !  "  he 
thought  to  himself,  —  "a  man  who  dines  at  Gondre- 
ville  and  spends  the  night  at  Cinq-Cygne  !  Mysteries 
indeed !  " 

"  Well?  "  cried  the  circle  around  Mademoiselle  Beau- 
visage  as  soon  as  he  reappeared. 


The  Deputy  of  Ar CIS.  101 

'*He  is  a  count,  and  vieille  roche,  I  answer  for 
it." 

"Oh!  how  I  should  like  .'o ,  s^2  hivn !  "  criod 
Ce'cile.  , 

"  Mademoiselle,"  said  Antonin,  smijlag'  aad  look- 
ing maliciously  at  Madame  MoUot,  "he  is  tall  and 
well-made  and  does  not  wear  a  wig.  His  little  groom 
was  as  drunk  as  the  twenty-four  cantons ;  they  filled 
him  with  champagne  at  Gondreville  and  that  little 
scamp,  only  nine  years  old,  answered  my  man  Julien, 
who  asked  him  about  his  master's  wig,  with  all  the 
assumption  of  an  old  valet :  '  My  master !  wear  a 
wig !  —  if  he  did  I  'd  leave  him.  He  dyes  his  hair  and 
that  *s  bad  enough/  " 

"  Your  opera-glass  magnifies,"  said  Achille  Pigoult 
to  Madame  Mollot,  who  laughed. 

"  Well,  the  tiger  of  the  handsome  count,  drunk  as 
he  is,  is  now  riding  to  Troyes  to  post  a  letter,  and 
he  '11  get  there,  as  they  say,  in  five-quarters  of  an 
hour." 

"  I  'd  like  to  have  that  tiger,"  said  Vinet. 

"If  the  count  dined  at  Gondreville  we  shall  soon 
know  all  about  him,"  remarked  Cecile ;  "for  my 
grandpapa  is  going  there  to-morrow  morning." 

"  What  will  strike  you  as  very  strange,"  said 
Antonin  Goulard,  "  is  that  the  party  at  Cinq-Cygne 
have  just  sent  Mademoiselle  Anicette,  the  maid  of  the 
Princesse  de  Cadignan,  in  the  Cinq-Cygne  carriage, 
with  a  note  to  the  stranger,  and  he  is  going  now  to 
pass  the  night  there." 

^^Ahga!"  said  Olivier  Vinet,  "then  he  is  not  a 
man ;  he 's  a  devil,  a  phoenix,  lie  will  poculate  —  " 


102  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

"Ah,  fie!  monsieur,"  said  Madame  Mollet,  "you 
use  words  that  are  really  —  " 

:  *?  ^Pocu'ate.':is  a  word  of  the  highest  latinity,  ma- 
dame,.''  replied  Vinet,  gravely.  "  So,  as  I  said,  he  will 
"poc;aiatfe  with  L:ouis  Philippe  in  the  morning,  and 
banquet  at  Holy-Rood  with  Charles  the  Tenth  at 
night.  There  is  but  one  reason  that  allows  a  decent 
man  to  go  to  both  camps —  from  Montague  to  Capulet ! 
Ha,  ha  !     I  know  who  that  stranger  is.     He  's  —  " 

"  The  president  of  a  railway  from  Paris  to  Lyons,  or 
Paris  to  Dijon,  or  from  Montereau  to  Troyes." 

"That's  true,"  said  Antonin.  "You  have  it. 
There's  nothing  but  speculation  that  is  welcomed 
everywhere." 

"Yes,  just  see  how  great  names,  great  families,  the 
old  and  the  new  peerage  are  rushing  hot-foot  into  enter- 
prises and  partnerships,"  said  Achille  Pigoult. 

"Francs  attract  the  Franks,"  remarked  Olivier 
Vinet,  without  a  smile. 

"  You  are  not  an  o//ye-branch  of  peace,"  said 
Madame  Mollot,  laughing. 

"But  is  it  not  demoralizing  to  see  such  names  as 
Verneuil,  Maufrigneuse,  and  Herouville  side  by  side 
with  those  of  du  Tillet  and  Nucingen  in  the  Bourse 
speculations?  " 

"Our  great  Unknown  is  undoubtedly  an  embryo 
railway,"  said  Olivier  Vinet. 

"  Well,  to-morrow  all  Arcis  will  be  upside-down 
about  it,"  said  Achille  Pigoult.  "I  shall  call  upon 
the  Unknown  and  ask  him  to  make  me  notary  of  the 
affair.  There  '11  be  two  thousand  deeds  to  draw,  at 
the  least." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  103 

''  Our  romance  is  turning  into  a  locomotive,"  said 
Ernestine  to  Cecile. 

''  A  count  with  a  railway  is  all  the  more  marriage- 
able," remarked  Achille  Pigoult.  *'  But  who  knows 
whether  he  is  a  baclielor?  " 

*'  Oh !  I  shall  know  that  to-morrow  from  grand- 
papa," cried  Cecile,  with  pretended  enthusiasm. 

''  What  a  jest !  "  said  Madame  MoUot.  ''  You  can't 
really  mean,  my  little  Cecile,  that  you  are  thinking  of 
that  stranger?" 

**  But  the  husband  is  always  the  stranger,"  inter- 
posed Olivier  Vinet,  making  a  sign  to  Mademoiselle 
Beauvisage  which  she  fully  understood. 

*'Why  shouldn't  I  think  of  him?"  asked  Ce'cile ; 
'*  that  is  n't  compromising.  Besides,  he  is,  so  these 
gentlemen  say,  either  some  great  speculator,  or  some 
great  seigneur,  and  either  would  suit  me.  I  love 
Paris ;  and  I  want  a  house,  a  carriage,  an  opera-box, 
etc.,  in  Paris." 

*'  That 's  right,"  said  Vinet.  *'  When  people  dream, 
they  need  n't  refuse  themselves  anything.  If  I  had 
the  pleasure  of  being  your  brother  I  should  marry 
you  to  the  young  Marquis  de  Cinq-Cygne,  who  seems 
to  me  a  lively  3^oung  scamp  who  will  make  the 
money  dance,  and  will  laugh  at  his  mother's  preju- 
dices against  the  actors  in  the  famous  Simeuse  melo- 
drama." 

'*  It  would  be  easier  for  you  to  make  yourself  prime- 
minister,"  said  Madame  Marion.  '*  There  will  never 
be  any  alliance  between  the  granddaughter  of  Grevin 
and  the  Cinq-Cygnes." 

*'  Romeo  came  within  an  ace  of  marrying  Juliet," 


104  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

remarked  Achille  Pigoult,  "  and  Mademoiselle  is  more 
beautiful  than  —  " 

"Oh!  if  you  are  going  to  quote  operas  and  opera 
beauties ! "  said  Herbelot  the  notary,  naively,  having 
finished  his  game  of  whist. 

"  My  legal  brother,"  said  Achille  Pigoult,  "  is  not 
very  strong  on  the  history  of  the  middle  ages." 

"Come,  Malvina!"  said  the  stout  notary  to  his 
wife,  making  no  reply  to  his  young  associate. 

"Tell  me.  Monsieur  Antonin,"  said  Cecile  to  the 
sub-prefect,  "you  spoke  of  Anicette,  the  maid  of  the 
Princesse  de  Cadignan  ;  do  you  know  her?  " 

"No,  but  Julien  does;  she  is  the  goddaughter  of 
his  father,  and  they  are  good  friends  together." 

"Then  try,  through  Julien,  to  get  her  to  live' with 
us.     Mamma  would  n't  consider  wages.'* 

"  Mademoiselle,  to  hear  is  to  obey,  as  they  say  to 
despots  in  Asia,"  replied  the  sub-prefect.  "  Just  see  to 
what  lengths  I  will  go  in  order  to  serve  you." 

And  he  left  the  room  to  give  Julien  orders  to  go 
with  Anicette  in  the  chariot  and  coax  her  away  from 
the  princess  at  any  price. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  105 


XI. 

IN  WHICH   THE   CANDIDATE   BEGINS    TO    LOSE    VOTES. 

At  this  moment  Simon  Giguet,  who  had  got  through 
his  bowing  and  scraping  to  all  the  influential  men  of 
Arcis,  and  who  regarded  himself  as  sure  of  his  elec- 
tion, joined  the  circle  around  Cecile  and  Mademoiselle 
Mollot.  The  evening  was  far  advanced.  Ten  o'clock 
had  struck.  After  an  enormous  consumption  of  cakes, 
orgeat,  punch,  lemonade,  and  various  syrups,  those 
who  had  come  that  evening  solely  for  political  reasons 
and  who  were  not  accustomed  to  Madame  Marion's 
floors,  to  them  aristocratic,  departed,  —  all  the  more 
willingly,  because  they  were  unaccustomed  to  sitting 
up  so  late.  The  evening  then  began  to  take  on  its 
usual  air  of  intimacy.  Simou  Giguet  hoped  that  he 
could  now  exchange  a  few  words  with  Cecile,  and  he 
looked  at  her  like  a  conqueror.  The  look  displeased 
her. 

*'My  dear  fellow,"  said  Antonin  to  Simon,  observ- 
ing on  his  friend's  face  the  glory  of  success,  '*you 
come  at  a  moment  when  the  noses  of  all  the  young 
men  in  Arcis  are  put  out  of  joint." 

*'Very  much  so,'*  said  Ernestine,  whom  Cecile  had 
nudged  with  her  elbow.  ''We  are  distracted,  Cecile 
and  I,  about  the  great  Unknown,  and  we  are  quar- 
relling for  him." 


106  The  Deputy  of  Areis. 

''But,"  said  Cecile,  "he  is  no  longer  unknown;  he 
is  a  count." 

"Some  adventurer!"  replied  Simon  Giguet,  with 
an  air  of  contempt. 

"Will  you  say  that,  Monsieur  Simon,"  answered 
Cecile,  feeling  piqued,  "of  a  man  to  whom  the  Prin- 
cesse  de  Cadignan  has  just  sent  her  servants,  who 
dined  at  Gondreville  to-day,  and  is  to  spend  this 
evening  with  the  Marquise  de  Cinq-Cygne?  " 

This  was  said  sharply,  and  in  so  hard  a  tone  that 
Simon  was  disconcerted. 

"Ah,  mademoiselle,"  said  Olivier  Vinet,  "if  we 
said  to  each  other's  faces  what  we  all  say  behind  our 
backs,  social  life  would  n't  be  possible.  The  pleasures 
of  society,  especially  iu  the  provinces,  are  to  slander 
and  backbite  our  neighbors." 

"Monsieur  Simon  is  jealous  of  your  enthusiasm  for 
the  mysterious  count,"  said  Ernestine. 

"It  seems  to  me,"  said  Cecile,  "that  Monsieur 
Simon  has  no  right  to  be  jealous  of  my  affections." 

After  which  remark,  uttered  in  a  way  to  dumfound 
Simon,  Cecile  rose;  the  others  made  way  for  her  and 
she  went  to  her  mother,  who  was  just  finishing  her 
rubber  of  whist. 

"My  dearest! "  cried  Madame  Marion,  hurrying 
after  the  heiress,  "I  think  you  are  rather  hard  on  my 
poor  Simon." 

"What  has  she  done,  my  dear  little  kitten?  "  asked 
Madame  Beauvisage. 

"Mamma,  Monsieur  Simon  called  my  great  Unknown 
an  adventurer ! " 

Simon  had  followed  his  aunt  and  was  now  beside 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  107 

the  card-table.  The  four  persons  whose  interests  were 
concerned  were  thus  in  the  middle  of  the  salon,  — 
Cecile  and  her  mother  on  one  side  of  the  table,  Madame 
Marion  and  her  nephew  on  the  other. 

"Really,  madame,"  said  Simon  Giguet,  "there  must 
be  a  strong  desire  to  find  fault  and  to  quarrel  with  me 
simply  because  1  happened  to  say  that  a  gentleman 
whom  all  Arcis  is  talking  about  and  who  stops  at  the 
Mulct  —  " 

"Do  you  think  he  has  come  here  to  put  himself  in 
competition  with  you? "  said  Madame  Beauvisage 
jestingly. 

"I  should  be  very  indignant  with  him  certainly  if 
he  were  to  cause  the  slightest  misunderstanding  be- 
tween Mademoiselle  Cecile  and  myself,"  said  the 
candidate,  with  a  supplicating  look  at  the  young 
girl. 

"You  gave  your  opinion,  monsieur,  in  a  decisive 
manner  which  proves  that  you  are  very  despotic,"  she 
replied;  "but  you  are  right;  if  you  wish  to  be  a  min- 
ister you  ought  to  be  decisive." 

Here  Madame  Marion  took  Madame  Beauvisage  by 
the  arm  and  led  her  to  a  sofa.  Cecile,  finding  herself 
alone,  returned  to  her  former  seat  to  avoid  hearing 
Simon's  answer  to  her  speech,  and  the  candidate  was 
left  standing  rather  foolishly  before  the  table,  where 
he  mechanically  played  with  the  counters. 

"My  dear  friend,"  said  Madame  Marion  in  alow 
voice  to  Madame  Beauvisage,  "you  see  that  nothing 
can  now  hinder  my  nephew's  election." 

"I  am  delighted  both  for  your  sake  and  for  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies,"  said  S^verine. 


108  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

"My  nephew  is  certain  to  go  far,  my  dear;  and  I'll 
tell  you  why:  his  own  fortune,  that  which  his  father 
will  leave  him  and  mine,  will  amount  altogether  to 
some  thirty  thousand  francs  a  year.  When  a  man  is 
a  deputy  and  has  a  fortune  like  that,  he  can  aspire  to 
anything." 

"Madame,  he  has  our  utmost  admiration  and  our 
most  earnest  wishes  for  the  success  of  his  political 
career ;  but  —  " 

"I  am  not  asking  for  an  answer,"  said  Madame 
Marion,  hastily  interrupting  her  friend.  "I  only  beg 
you  to  reflect  on  the  following  suggestions:  Do  our 
children  suit  each  other?  Can  we  marry  them?  We 
should  then  live  in  Paris  during  the  sessions;  and 
who  knows  if  the  deputy  of  Arcis  may  not  be  settled 
there  permanently  in  some  fine  place  in  the  magis- 
tracy? Look  at  Monsieur  Vinet  of  Provins,  how  he 
has  made  his  way.  People  blamed  Mademoiselle  de 
Chargeboeuf  for  marrying  him ;  yet  she  will  soon  be 
wife  of  the  Keeper  of  the  Seals ;  Monsieur  Vinet  can 
be  peer  of  France  whenever  he  pleases." 

"Madame,  I  have  not  the  power  to  marry  my  daugh- 
ter according  to  my  own  tastes.  In  the  first  place, 
her  father  and  I  leave  her  absolutely  free  to  choose 
for  herself.  If  she  wanted  to  marry  the  '  great 
Unknown '  and  we  found  that  the  match  was  suitable, 
we  should  give  our  consent.  Besides  this,  Cecil e  is 
wholly  dependent  on  her  grandfather,  who  intends  to 
give  her  on  her  marriage  the  H6tel  de  Beauseant  in 
Paris,  which  he  purchased  for  us  six  years  ago ;  the 
value  of  which  is  now  rated  at  eight  hundred  thousand 
francs.     It  is  one  of  the  finest  houses  in  the  faubourg 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  109 

Saint-Germain.  Moreover,  he  intends  to  add  two  hun- 
dred thousand  francs  for  the  cost  of  fitting  it  up.  A 
grandfather  who  behaves  in  this  way,  and  who  can 
influence  my  mother-in-law  to  make  a  few  sacrifices 
for  her  granddaughter  in  expectation  of  a  suitable 
marriage,  has  a  right  to  advise  —  " 

''Certainly,"  said  Madame  Marion,  stupefied  by  this 
confidence,  which  made  the  marriage  of  her  nephew 
and  Ce'cile  extremely  difficult. 

"Even  if  Cecile  had  nothing  to  expect  from  her 
grandfather  Grevin,"  continued  Madame  Beauvisage, 
"she  would  not  marry  without  first  consulting  him. 
If  you  have  any  proposals  to  make,  go  and  see  my 
father." 

"Very  good;  I  will  go,"  said  Madame  Marion. 

Madame  Beauvisage  made  a  sign  to  Cecile,  and 
together  they  left  the  salon. 

The  next  day  Antonin  and  Frederic  Marest  found 
themselves,  according  to  their  usual  custom,  with 
Monsieur  Martener  and  Olivier,  beneath  the  lindens 
of  the  Avenue  of  Sighs,  smoking  their  cigars  and 
walking  up  and  down.  This  daily  promenade  is  one 
of  the  petty  pleasures  of  government  officials  in  the 
provinces  when  they  happen  to  be  on  good  terms  with 
one  another. 

After  they  had  made  a  few  turns,  Simon  Giguet 
came  up  and  joined  them  saying  to  the  sub-prefect 
with  a  mysterious  air:  — 

"You  ought  to  be  faithful  to  an  old  comrade  who 
wishes  to  get  you  the  rosette  of  an  officer  and  a 
prefecture." 

"You  are  beginning  your  political  career  betimes," 


110  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

said  Antonin,  laughing.  ''You  are  trying  to  corrupt 
me,  rabid  puritan!  " 

"Will  you  support  me?" 

''My  dear  fellow,  you  know  very  well  that  Bar-sur- 
Aube  votes  here.  Who  can  guarantee  a  majority  under 
such  circumstances?  My  colleague  of  Bar-sur-Aube 
would  complain  of  me  if  I  did  not  unite  my  efforts 
with  his  in  support  of  the  government.  Your 
promise  is  conditional;  whereas  my  dismissal  would 
be  certain." 

"But  I  have  no  competitors." 

"You  think  so,"  said  Antonin,  "but  some  one  is 
sure  to  turn  up;  you  may  rely  on  that." 

"Why  does  n't  my  aunt  come,  when  she  knows  I  am 
on  a  gridiron!  "  exclaimed  Giguet,  suddenly.  "These 
three  hours  are  like  three  years !  " 

His  secret  had  escaped  him  and  he  now  admitted  to 
his  friend  that  Madame  Marion  had  gone  on  his  behalf 
to  old  Grevin  with  a  formal  proposal  for  Cecile's 
hand. 

The  pair  had  now  reached  the  Brienne  road  opposite 
to  the  Mulct  hostelry.  While  the  lawyer  looked  down 
the  street  towards  the  bridge  his  aunt  would  have  to 
cross,  the  sub-prefect  examined  the  gullies  made  by 
the  rain  in  the  open  square.  Arcis  is  not  paved.  The 
plains  of  Champagne  furnish  no  material  fit  for  build- 
ing, nor  even  pebbles  large  enough  for  cobble-stone 
pavements.  One  or  two  streets  and  a  few  detached 
places  are  imperfectly  macadamized  and  that  is  say- 
ing enough  to  describe  their  condition  after  a  rain. 
The  sub-prefect  gave  himself  an  appearance  of  occu- 
pation by  apparently  exercising  his  thoughts  on  this 


The  Deputy  of  Arc  is.  Ill 

important  object;  but  he  lost  not  a  single  expression 
of  suffering  on  the  anxious  face  of  his  companion. 

At  this  moment,  the  stranger  was  returning  from 
the  Chateau  de  Cinq-Cygne,  where  he  had  apparently 
passed  the  night.  Goulard  resolved  to  clear  up,  him- 
self, the  mystery  wrapped  about  the  Unknown,  who 
was  physically  enveloped  in  an  overcoat  of  thick  cloth 
called  a  paletot^  then  the  fashion.  A  mantle,  thrown 
across  his  knees  for  a  covering,  hid  the  lower  half  of 
his  body,  while  an  enormous  muffler  of  red  cashmere 
covered  his  neck  and  head  to  the  eyes.  His  hat, 
jauntily  tipped  to  one  side,  was,  nevertheless,  not 
ridiculous.  Never  was  a  mystery  more  mysteriously 
bundled  up  and  swathed. 

"Look  out!  "  cried  the  tiger,  who  preceded  the  til- 
bury on  horseback.  ''Open,  papa  Poupart,  open!" 
he  screamed  in  his  shrill  little  voice. 

The  three  servants  of  the  inn  ran  out,  and  the  til- 
bury drove  in  without  any  one  being  able  to  see  a 
single  feature  of  the  stranger's  face.  The  sub-prefect 
followed  the  tilbury  into  the  courtyard,  and  went  to 
the  door  of  the  inn. 

*' Madame  Poupart,"  said  Antonin,  *'will  you  ask 
Monsieur  —  Monsieur  —  " 

"I  don't  know  his  name,"  said  Gothard's  sister. 

''You  do  wrong!  The  rules  of  the  police  are  strict, 
and  Monsieur  Groslter  does  n't  trifle,  like  some  com- 
missaries of  police.'* 

"Innkeepers  are  never  to  blame  about  election- 
time,"  remarked  the  little  tiger,  getting  off  his 
horse. 

"I  '11  repeat  that  to  Vinet,"  thought  the  sub-prefect. 


112  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

''Go  and  ask  your  master  if  he  can  receive  the  sub- 
prefect  of  Arcis." 

Presently  Paradise  returned. 

"Monsieur  begs  Monsieur  the  sub-prefect  to  come 
up;  he  will  be  delighted  to  see  him." 

"My  lad,"  said  Olivier  Vinet,  who  with  the  two 
other  functionaries  had  joined  the  sub-prefect  before 
the  inn,  "how  much  does  your  master  give  a  year  for 
a  boy  of  your  cut  and  wits  ?  " 

"Give,  monsieur!  What  do  you  take  me  for? 
Monsieur  le  comte  lets  himself  be  milked,  and  I  'm 
content." 

"That  boy  was  raised  in  a  good  school!"  said 
Frederic  Marest. 

"The  highest  school,  monsieur,"  said  the  urchin, 
amazing  the  four  friends  with  his  perfect  self- 
possession. 

"What  a  Figaro!  "  cried  Vinet. 

"Mustn't  lower  one's  price," said  the  infant.  "My 
master  calls  me  a  little  Robert-Macaire,  and  since  we 
have  learned  how  to  invest  our  money  we  are  Figaro, 
plus  a  savings  bank." 

"How  much  do  you  earn?  " 

"Oh!  some  races  I  make  two  or  three  thousand 
francs  —  and  without  selling  my  master,  monsieur." 

"Sublime  infant!  "  said  Vinet;  "he  knows  the  turf." 

"Yes,  and  all  gentlemen  riders,"  said  the  child, 
sticking  out  his  tongue  at  Vinet. 

Antonin  Goulard,  ushered  by  the  landlord  into  a 
room  which  had  been  turned  into  a  salon,  felt  himself 
instantly  under  the  focus  of  an  eyeglass  held  in  the 
most  impertinent  manner  by  the  stranger. 


The  Deputy  of  Areis,  113 

"Monsieur,"  said  the  sub-prefect  with  a  certain 
official  hauteur,  "I  have  just  learned  from  the  wife  of 
the  innkeeper  that  you  refuse  to  conform  to  the  ordi- 
nances of  the  police,  and  as  I  do  not  doubt  that  you 
are  a  person  of  distinction,  I  have  come  myself  —  " 

*'I8  your  name  Goulard?"  demanded  the  stranger 
in  a  high  voice. 

"I  am  the  sub-prefect,  monsieur,"  replied  Antonin 
Goulard. 

*'Your  father  belonged  to  the  Simeuse  family?" 

'*And  I,  monsieur,  belong  to  the  government;  that  is 
how  times  differ." 

"You  have  a  servant  named  Julien,  who  has  tried 
to  entice  the  Princesse  de  Cadignan's  maid  away 
from  her  ?  " 

"Monsieur,  I  do  not  allow  any  one  to  speak  to  me 
in  this  manner,"  said  Goulard;  "you  misunderstand 
my  character." 

"And  you  want  to  know  about  mine!  "  returned  the 
Unknown.  "Well,  I  will  now  make  myself  known. 
You  can  write  in  the  landlord's  book:  'Impertinent 
fellow.  Direct  from  Paris.  Age  doubtful.  Travel- 
ling for  pleasure.'  It  would  be  rather  a  novelty  in 
France  to  imitate  England  and  let  people  come  and 
go  as  they  please,  without  tormenting  them  at  every 
turn  for  *  papers.'  I  have  no  passport;  now,  what 
will  you  do  to  me?  " 

"The  procureur-du-roi  is  walking  up  and  down  there 
under  the  lindens,"  said  the  sub-prefect. 

"Monsieur  Marest!  Wish  him  good-morning  from 
me." 

"But  who  are  you?" 

8 


114  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

"Whatever  you  wish  me  to  be,  my  dear  Monsieur 
Goulard,"  said  the  stranger.  "You  alone  shall  decide 
what  1  am  to  be  in  this  department.  Give  me  some 
advice  on  that  head.     Here,  read  that." 

And  the  stranger  handed  the  sub-prefect  the  follow- 
ing letter : — 

(Conjidential.)  Prefecture  of  the  Aube. 

Monsieur  the  Sub-prefect,  —  You  will  consult  with 
the  bearer  of  this  letter  as  to  the  election  at  Arcis,  and 
you  will  conform  to  all  the  suggestions  and  requests  he 
may  make  to  you.  I  request  you  to  conduct  this  matter 
with  the  utmost  discretion,  and  to  treat  the  bearer  with  all 
the  respect  that  is  due  to  his  station. 

The  letter  was  written  and  signed  by  the  prefect  of 
the  Aube. 

"You  have  been  talking  prose  without  knowing  it," 
said  the  Unknown,  taking  back  the  letter. 

Antonin  Goulard,  already  struck  with  the  aristo- 
cratic tone  and  manners  of  this  personage,  became 
respectful. 

"How  was  that,  monsieur?  "  he  asked. 

"By  endeavoring  to  entice  Anicette.  She  told  us 
of  the  attempts  of  your  man  Julien  to  corrupt  her. 
But  my  little  tiger.  Paradise,  got  the  better  of  him, 
and  he  ended  b}^  admitting  that  you  wanted  to  put 
Anicette  into  the  service  of  one  of  the  richest  families 
in  Arcis.  Now,  as  the  richest  family  in  Arcis  is  the 
Beauvisage  family  I  make  no  doubt  it  is  Mademoiselle 
Cecile  who  covets  this  treasure." 
•     "Yes,  monsieur." 

"Very  good ;  then  Anicette  shall  enter  the  Beauvisage 
household  at  once." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  115 

He  whistled.  Paradise  presented  himself  so  rapidly 
that  his  master  said:  "You  were  listening !  " 

''In  spite  of  myself,  Monsieur  le  comte;  these  par- 
titions are  nothing  but  paper.  But  if  Monsieur  le 
comte  prefers,  I  will  move  upstairs." 

"No,  you  can  listen ;  it  is  your  perquisite.  It  is  for 
me  to  speak  low  when  I  don't  want  you  to  know  my 
affairs.  Go  back  to  Cinq-Cygne,  and  give  this  gold 
piece  to  that  little  Anicette  from  me.  Julien  shall 
have  the  credit  of  enticing  her  away,"  he  continued, 
addressing  Goulard.  "That  bit  of  gold  will  inform 
her  that  she  is  to  follow  him.  Anicette  may  be  use- 
ful to  the  success  of  our  candidate." 

"Anicette?  " 

"Monsieur,  it  is  now  thirty-two  years  since  lady's- 
maids  have  served  my  purposes.  I  had  my  first 
adventure  at  the  age  of  thirteen,  like  the  regent,  the 
great-great-grandfather  of  our  present  King.  Do  you 
know  the  fortune  of  this  Mademoiselle  Beauvisage?  " 

"I  can't  help  knowing  it,  monsieur,  for  yesterday 
at  Madame  Marion's,  Madame  Beauvisage  said  openly 
that  Monsieur  Grevin,  Cecile's  grandfather,  would  give 
his  granddaughter  the  hotel  de  Beauseant  in  Paris  and 
two  hundred  thousand  francs  for  a  wedding  present." 

The  stranger's  eyes  expressed  no  surprise.  He 
seemed  to  consider  the  fortune  rather  paltry. 

"Do  you  know  Arcis  well?  "  he  asked  of  Goulard. 

"I  am  the  sub-prefect  and  I  was  born  here." 

"What  is  the  best  way  to  balk  curiosity?" 

"By  satisfying  it.  For  instance.  Monsieur  le 
Comte  has  a  baptismal  name;  let  him  register  that 
with  the  title  of  count." 


116  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

*'Very  good;  Comte  Maxime." 

''And  if  monsieur  will  assume  the  position  of  a 
railway  official,  Arcis  will  be  content;  it  will  amuse 
itself  by  floating  that  stick  at  least  for  a  fortnight." 

"No,  I  prefer  to  be  concerned  in  irrigation;  it  is 
less  common.  I  have  come  down  to  survey  the  waste- 
lands of  Champagne  in  order  to  reclaim  them.  That 
will  be,  my  good  Monsieur  Goulard,  a  reason  for 
inviting  me  to  dine  with  you  to-morrow  to  meet  the 
mayor  and  his  family ;  I  wish  to  see  them,  and  study 
them.'* 

"I  shall  be  only  too  happy  to  receive  you,"  said  the 
sub-prefect;  "but  I  must  ask  your  indulgence  for  the 
deficiencies  of  my  little  household." 

"If  I  succeed  in  managing  the  election  of  Arcis 
according  to  the  wishes  of  those  who  have  sent  me 
here,  you,  my  dear  friend,  will  be  made  a  prefect. 
Here,  read  these ;  "  and  he  held  out  two  letters  to  his 
visitor. 

"Very  good,  Monsieur  le  comte,"  said  Antouin, 
returning  them. 

"Make  a  list  of  all  the  votes  on  which  the  ministry 
may  count.  Above  all,  let  no  one  suspect  that  you 
and  I  understand  each  other.  I  am  a  speculator  in 
land,  and  I  don't  care  a  fig  for  elections." 

"I  will  send  the  commissary  of  police  to  force  you 
to  inscribe  your  name  on  Poupart's  register." 

"So  do.  Adieu,  monsieur.  Heavens!  what  a 
region  this  is,"  said  the  count  in  a  loud  voice;  "one 
can't  take  a  step  without  having  the  community,  sub- 
prefect  and  all,  on  one's  back." 

"You  will   have  to  answer  to  the  commissary  of 


The  Deputy  of  Areis.  117 

police,  monsieur,"  said  Antonin,  in  an  equally  loud 
tone. 

And  for  the  next  twenty  minutes  Madame  Mollot 
talked  of  the  altercation  that  took  place  between  the 
sub-prefect  and  the  stranger. 

*'Well,  what  wood  is  the  beam  that  has  plumped  into 
our  bog  made  of?"  said  Olivier  Vinet  when  Antonin 
Goulard  rejoined  them  on  leaving  the  Mulct. 

"  He  is  a  Comte  Maxime  who  is  here  to  study  the 
geological  system  of  Champagne,  with  a  view  to  find- 
ing mineral  waters,"  replied  the  sub-prefect,  with  an 
easy  manner. 

*'Say  a  speculator,"  said  Olivier. 

''Does  he  expect  to  get  the  natives  to  lay  out  cap- 
ital ?  "  asked  Monsieur  Martener. 

'*!  doubt  if  our  royalists  will  go  into  that  kind  of 
mining,"  remarked  Vinet,  laughing. 

*'What  should  you  think  from  the  air  and  gestures 
of  Madame  Marion?"  said  the  sub-prefect  turning 
off  the  subject  by  pointing  to  Madame  Marion  and 
Simon,  who  were  deep  in  conversation. 

Simon  had  gone  toward  the  bridge  to  meet  his  aunt, 
and  was  now  walking  with  her  up  the  square. 

"If  he  was  accepted  one  word  would  suffice,"  said 
the  shrewd  Olivier. 

*'Well?  "  said  all  the  officials  when  Simon  came  to 
them  under  the  lindens. 

*'My  aunt  thinks  the  matter  very  hopeful,"  replied 
Simon.  "Madame  Beauvisage  and  old  Grevin,  who 
has  just  gone  to  Gondreville,  were  not  at  all  surprised 
at  my  proposals;  they  talked  of  our  respective  for- 
tunes, and  said  they  wished  to  leave  C^cile  perfectly 


118  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

free  to  make  her  choice.  Besides  which,  Madame 
Beauvisage  said  that,  as  for  herself,  she  saw  no  objec- 
tion to  an  alliance  by  which  she  should  feel  hej-self 
honored;  although  she  postponed  all  answer  until 
after  my  election,  and  possibly  my  first  appearance 
in  the  Chamber.  Old  Grevin  said  he  should  consult 
the  Comte  de  Gondreville,  without  whose  advice  he 
never  took  any  important  step." 

''All  of  which  means,"  said  Goulard,  point-blank, 
''that  you  will  never  marry  Cecile,  my  old  fellow." 

"Why  not?  "  said  Giguet,  ironically. 

"My  dear  friend,  Madame  Beauvisage  and  her 
daughter  spend  four  evenings  every  week  in  the  salon 
of  your  aunt;  your  aunt  is  the  most  distinguished 
woman  in  Arcis ;  and  she  is,  though  twenty  years  the 
elder,  an  object  of  envy  to  Madame  Beauvisage ;  don't 
you  see,  therefore,  that  they  wished  to  wrap  up  their 
refusal  in  certain  civilities?  " 

"Not  to  say  entire  yes  or  no  in  such  a  case,"  said 
Vinet,  "is  to  say  no^  with  due  regard  to  the  intimacy 
of  the  two  families.  Though  Madame  Beauvisage  has 
the  largest  fortune  in  Arcis,  Madame  Marion  is  the 
most  esteemed  woman  in  the  place;  for,  with  the 
exception  of  our  chief -justice's  wife,  who  sees  no  one 
now,  she  is  the  only  woman  who  knows  how  to  hold  a 
salon ;  she  is  the  queen  of  Arcis.  Madame  Beauvisage 
has  tried  to  make  her  refusal  polite,  that 's  all." 

"I  think  that  old  Grevin  was  fooling  your  mother," 
said  Frederic  Marest. 

"Yesterday  you  attacked  the  Comte  de  Gondreville, 
you  insulted  and  grievously  affronted  him,  and  he  is 
to  be  consulted  about  your  marriage  to  Cecile!  " 


the  Deputy  of  Arcis.  119 

"P^re  Grevin  is  a  sly  old  dog,"  said  Vinet. 

'* Madame  Beauvisage  is  very  ambitious,"  pursued 
Antonin  Goulard.  "She  knows  very  well  her  daugh- 
ter is  to  have  two  millions ;  she  means  to  be  mother- 
in-law  of  a  minister  or  an  ambassador,  in  order  to 
play  the  great  lady  in  Paris." 

''Well,  why  not?"  said  Simon  Giguet. 

''I  wish  you  may  get  it!"  replied  the  sub-prefect 
looking  at  Vinet,  with  whom  he  went  off  into  a  hearty 
laugh  as  soon  as  they  were  out  of  hearing.  "He  won't 
even  be  deputy,"  added  Antonin,  addressing  Vinet; 
"  the  ministry  have  other  views.  You  will  find  a  let- 
ter from  your  father  when  you  get  home,  enjoining 
you  to  make  sure  of  the  votes  of  all  the  persons  in  your 
department,  and  see  that  they  go  for  the  ministerial 
candidate.  Your  own  promotion  depends  on  this ;  and 
he  requests  you  to  be  very  discreet." 

"But  who  is  the  candidate  for  whom  our  ushers  and 
sheriffs  and  clerks,  and  solicitors  and  notaries  are  to 
vote?"  asked  Vinet. 

"The  one  I  shall  name  to  you." 

"How  do  you  know  my  father  has  written  to  me, 
and  what  he  wrote?  " 

"The  stranger  told  me  —  ** 

"The  man  after  water?  " 

"My  dear  Vinet,  you  and  I  are  not  to  know;  we 
must  treat  him  as  a  stranger.  He  saw  your  father  at 
Provins  as  he  came  through.  Just  now  this  same 
man  gave  me  a  note  from  the  prefect  instructing  me 
to  follow  in  every  particular  the  instructions  of  Comte 
Maxime  about  this  election.  I  knew  very  well  I 
should  have  a  battle  to  fight!     Come  and  dine  some- 


120  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

where  and  we  will  get  out  our  batteries.  You  are  to 
be  procureur-du-roi  at  Mantes,  and  I  am  to  be  prefect ; 
but  we  must  seem,  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  elec- 
tion, for  don't  you  see,  we  are  between  the  hammer 
and  the  anvil.  Simon  is  the  candidate  of  a  party 
which  wants  to  overturn  the  present  ministry  and  may 
succeed ;  but  for  men  as  intelligent  as  you  and  I  there 
is  but  one  course  to  take." 

''What  is  that?" 

''To  serve  those  who  make  and  unmake  ministers. 
A  letter  was  shown  to  me  from  one  of  those  person- 
ages who  represent  the  stable  and  immovable  thought 
of  the  State." 

Before  going  farther,  it  is  necessary  to  explain  who 
this  Unknown  person  was,  and  what  his  purpose  was 
in  coming  to  Champagne. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  121 


XII. 

THE   SALON   OF   MADAME   d'eSPARD. 

About  two  months  before  the  nomination  of  Simon 
Giguet,  at  eleven  o'clock  one  evening,  in  a  mansion  of 
the  faubourg  Saint-Honore  belonging  to  the  Marquise 
d'Espard,  while  tea  was  being  served  the  Chevalier 
d'Espard,  brother-in-law  to  the  marquise,  put  down  his 
tea-cup,  and,  looking  round  the  circle,  remarked  :  — 

"  Maxime  was  very  melancholy  to-night, — didn't 
you  think  so?  '* 

''  Yes,"  replied  Rastignac,  "  but  his  sadness  is  easily 
accounted  for.  He  is  forty-eight  years  old ;  at  that 
age  a  man  makes  no  new  friends,  and  now  that  we 
have  buried  de  Marsay,  Maxime  has  lost  the  only  man 
capable  of  understanding  him,  of  being*  useful  to  him, 
and  of  using  him." 

'*  He  probably  has  pressing  debts.  Could  n't  you 
put  him  in  the  way  of  paying  them?"  said  the  mar- 
quise to  Rastignac. 

At  this  period  Rastignac  was,  for  the  second  time, 
in  the  ministry ;  he  had  just  been  made  count  almost 
against  his  will.  His  father-in-law,  the  Baron  de  Nucin- 
gen,  was  peer  of  France,  his  younger  brother  a  bishop, 
the  Comte  de  Roche-Hugon,  his  brother-in-law,  was  an 
ambassador,  and  he  himself  was  thought  to  be  indis- 
pensable in  all  future  combinations  of  the  ministry. 


122  The  Deputy  of  Ar CIS. 

"  You  always  forget,  my  dear  marquise,"  replied 
Rastignac,  *'tbat  our  goverument  exchanges  its  silver 
for  gold  only ;  it  pays  no  heed  to  men." 

''  Is  Maxime  a  man  who  would  blow  out  his  brains?' 
inquired  the  banker  du  Tillet. 

"  Ha!  you  wish  I  were;  we  should  be  quits  then," 
said  Comte  Maxime  de  Trailles,  whom  ever^^body  sup- 
posed to  have  left  the  house. 

The  count  rose  suddenly,  like  an  apparition,  from 
the  depths  of  an  arm-chair  placed  exactly  behind  that 
of  the  Chevalier  d'Espard. 

Every  one  present  laughed. 

*' Will  you  have  a  cup  of  tea?"  said  the  young 
Comtesse  de  Rastignac,  whom  the  marquise  had  asked 
to  do  the  honors  in  her  place. 

"  Gladly,"  replied  the  count,  standing  before  the 
fireplace. 

This  man,  the  prince  of  fashionable  scoundrels,  had 
managed  to  maintain  himself  until  now  in  the  high  and 
mighty  position  of  a  dandy  in  Paris,  then  called  Gants 
Jaunes  (lemon-kid-glovers),  and  since,  ''  lions."  It  is 
useless  to  relate  the  history  of  his  youth,  full  of  ques- 
tionable adventures,  with  now  and  then  some  horrible 
drama,  in  which  he  had  always  known  how  to  save 
appearances.  To  this  man  women  were  never  any- 
thing else  than  a  means  ;  he  believed  no  more  in  their 
griefs  than  he  did  in  their  joys;  he  regarded  them, 
like  the  late  de  Marsay,  as  naughty  children.  After 
squandering  his  own  fortune,  he  had  spent  that  of  a 
famous  courtesan.  La  Belle  HoUandaise,  the  mother 
of  Esther  Gobseck.  He  had  caused  the  misery  of 
Madame    Restaud,    sister    of    Madame   Delphine  de 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  123 

Nucingen,  the  mother  of  the  young  Comtesse  de 
Rastignac. 

The  world  of  Paris  offers  many  unimaginable  situa- 
tions. The  Baroune  de  Nucingen  was  at  this  moment 
in  Madame  d'p]spard's  salon  in  presence  of  the  author 
of  all  her  sister's  misery,  in  presence  of  a  murderer 
who  killed  only  the  happiness  of  women.  That,  per- 
haps, was  the  reason  why  he  was  there.  Madame  de 
Nucingen  had  dined  at  Madame  d'Espard's  with  her 
daughter,  married  a  few  months  earlier  to  the  Comte 
de  Rastignac,  who  had  begun  his  political  career  by 
occupying  the  post  of  under-secretary  of  state  in  the 
famous  ministry  of  the  late  de  Marsay,  the  only  real 
statesman  produced  by  the  Revolution  of  July. 

Comte  Maxime  de  Trailles  alone  knew  how  many 
disasters  he  had  caused ;  but  he  had  always  taken 
care  to  shelter  himself  from  blame  by  scrupulously 
obeying  the  laws  of  the  Man-Code.  Though  he  had 
squandered  in  the  course  of  his  life  more  money  than 
the  four  galleys  of  France  could  have  stolen  in  the 
same  time,  he  had  kept  clear  of  justice.  Never  had 
he  lacked  in  honor ;  his  gambling  debts  were  paid 
scrupulously.  An  admirable  player,  his  partners  were 
chiefly  the  great  seigneurs,  ministers,  and  ambassa- 
dors. He  dined  habitually  with  all  the  members  of 
the  diplomatic  body.  He  fought  duels,  and  had  killed 
two  or  three  men  in  his  life ;  in  fact,  he  had  half  mur- 
dered them,  for  his  coolness  and  self-possession  were 
unparalleled.  No  young  man  could  compare  with  him 
in  dress,  in  the  distinction  of  his  manners,  the  ele- 
gance of  his  witty  speech,  the  grace  of  his  easy  car- 
riage, —  in  short,  what  was  called  in  those  days  *'  the 


124  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

grand  air."  In  his  capacity  of  page  to  the  Emperor, 
trained  from  the  age  of  twelve  in  the  art  of  riding,  he 
was  held  to  be  the  skilfulest  of  horsemen.  Having 
always  fine  horses  in  his  stable,  he  raised  some,  and 
ruled  the  fashion  in  equestrianism.  No  man  could 
stand  a  supper  of  young  bloods  better  than  he ;  he 
drank  more  than  the  best-trained  toper,  but  he  came 
out  fresh  and  cool,  and  ready  to  begin  again  as  if  orgy 
were  his  element.  Maxime,  one  of  those  despised  men 
who  know  how  to  repress  the  contempt  they  inspire 
by  the  insolence  of  their  attitude  and  the  fear  they 
cause,  never  deceived  himself  as  to  his  actual  position. 
Hence  his  real  strength.  Strong  men  are  always  their 
own  critics. 

Under  the  Restoration  he  had  made  the  most  of  his 
former  condition  of  page  to  the  Emperor.  He  attrib- 
uted to  his  pretended  Bonapartist  opinions  the  rebuffs 
he  met  with  from  the  different  ministers  when  he  asked 
for  an  oflSce  under  the  Bourbons ;  for,  in  spite  of  his 
connections,  his  birth,  and  his  dangerous  aptitudes,  he 
never  obtained  anything.  After  the  failure  of  these 
attempts  he  entered  the  secret  cabal  which  led  in  time 
to  the  fall  of  the  Elder  branch. 

When  the  Younger  branch,  preceded  by  the  Parisian 
populace,  had  trodden  down  the  Elder  branch  and  was 
seated  on  the  throne,  Maxime  reproduced  his  attach- 
ment to  Napoleon,  for  whom  he  cared  as  much  as  for 
his  first  love.  He  then  did  great  services  to  the  new- 
comers, who  soon  found  the  payment  for  them  oner- 
ous ;  for  Maxime  too  often  demanded  payment  of  men 
who  knew  how  to  reckon  those  services.  At  the  first 
refusal,  Maxime  assumed  at  once  an  attitude  of  hos- 


-•  The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  125 

tility,  threatening  to  reveal  unpleasant  details ;  for 
budding  dynasties,  like  infants,  have  much  soiled 
linen.  De  Marsay,  during  his  ministry,  repaired  the 
mistake  of  his  predecessors,  who  had  ignored  the 
utility  of  this  man.  He  gave  him  those  secret  mis- 
sions whicli  require  a  conscience  made  malleable  by 
the  hammer  of  necessity,  an  adroitness  which  recoils 
before  no  methods,  impudence,  and,  above  all,  the 
self-possession,  the  coolness,  the  embracing  glance 
which  constitute  the  hired  hravi  of  thought  and 
statesmanship.  Such  instruments  are  both  rare  and 
necessary. 

As  a  matter  of  calculation,  de  Marsay  maintained 
Comte  Maxime  de  Trailles  in  the  highest  society ;  he 
described  him  as  a  man  ripened  by  passions,  taught 
by  experience,  who  knew  men  and  things,  to  whom 
travel  and  a  certain  faculty  for  observation  had  im- 
parted an  understanding  of  European  interests,  of 
foreign  cabinets,  and  of  all  the  ramifications  of  the 
great  continental  families.  De  Marsay  convinced 
Maxime  of  the  necessity  of  doing  himself  credit;  he 
taught  him  discretion,  less  as  a  virtue  than  a  specu- 
lation ;  he  proved  to  him  that  the  governing  powers 
would  never  abandon  a  solid,  safe,  elegant,  and 
polished  instrument. 

*'  In  politics,"  he  said,  blaming  Maxime  for  having 
uttered  a  threat,  '*  we  should  never  blackmail  but 
once." 

Maxime  was  a  man  who  could  sound  the  depths  of 
that  saving. 

De  Marsay  dead,  Comte  Maxime  de  Trailles  had 
fallen  back  into  his  former  state  of  existence.     He 


126  The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  •. 

went  to  the  baths  every  year  and  gambled  ;  he  returned 
to  Paris  for  the  winter ;  but,  though  he  received  some 
large  sums  from  the  depths  of  certain  niggardly  coffers, 
that  sort  of  half-pay  to  a  daring  man  kept  for  use  at 
any  moment  and  possessing  many  secrets  of  the  art  of 
diplomacy,  was  insufficient  for  the  dissipations  of  a 
life  as  splendid  as  that  of  the  king  of  dandies,  the 
tyrant  of  several  Parisian  clubs.  Consequently  Comte 
Maxime  was  often  uneasy  about  matters  financial. 
Possessing  no  propert}^,  he  had  never  been  able  to 
consolidate  his  position  by  being  made  a  deputy ;  also, 
having  no  ostensible  functions,  it  was  impossible  for 
him  to  hold  a  knife  at  the  throat  of  any  minister  to 
compel  his  nomination  as  peer  of  France.  At  the 
present  moment  he  saw  that  Time  was  getting  the 
better  of  him ;  for  his  lavish  dissipations  were  begin- 
ning to  wear  upon  his  person,  as  they  had  already 
worn  out  his  divers  fortunes.  In  spite  of  his  splendid 
exterior,  he  knew  himself,  and  could  not  be  deceived 
about  that  self.  He  intended  to  "  make  an  end  "  —  to 
marry. 

A  man  of  acute  mind,  he  was  under  no  illusion  as 
to  the  apparent  consideration  in  which  he  was  held ; 
he  well  knew  it  was  false.  No  women  were  truly  on 
his  side,  either  in  the  great  world  of  Paris  or  among 
the  bourgeoisie.  Much  secret  malignity,  much  apparent 
good-humor,  and  many  services  rendered  were  neces- 
sary to  maintain  him  in  his  present  position ;  for 
every  one  desired  his  fall,  and  a  run  of  ill-luck  might 
at  any  time  ruin  him.  Once  sent  to  Clichy  or  forced 
to  leave  the  country  by  notes  no  longer  renewable,  he 
would  sink  into  the  gulf  where  so  many  political  car- 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  127 

casses  may  be  seen,  —  carcasses  of  men  who  find  no 
consolation  in  one  another's  company.  Even  this  very 
evening  he  was  in  dread  of  a  collapse  of  that  threat- 
ening arch  which  debt  erects  over  the  head  of  many  a 
Parisian.  He  had  allowed  his  anxieties  to  appear 
upon  his  face  ;  he  had  refused  to  play  cards  at  Madame 
d'Espard's ;  he  had  talked  with  the  women  in  an 
absent-minded  manner,  and  finally  he  had  sunk  down 
silent  and  absorbed  in  the  arm-chair  from  which  he 
had  just  risen  like  Banquo's  ghost. 

Comte  Maxime  de  Trailles  now  found  himself  the 
object  of  all  glances,  direct  and  indirect,  standing  as 
he  did  before  the  fireplace  and  illumined  by  the  cross- 
lights  of  two  candelabra.  The  few  words  said  about 
him  compelled  him,  in  a  way,  to  bear  himself  proudly ; 
and  he  did  so,  like  a  man  of  sense,  without  arrogance, 
and  yet  with  the  intention  of  showing  himself  to  be 
above  suspicion.  A  painter  could  scarcely  have  found 
a  better  moment  in  which  to  seize  the  portrait  of  a 
man  who,  in  his  way,  was  truly  extraordinary.  Does 
it  not  require  rare  faculties  to  play  such  a  part,  — to 
ena})le  one  through  thirty  years  to  seduce  women  ;  to 
constrain  one  to  employ  great  gifts  in  an  under- 
hand sphere  only,  —  inciting  a  people  to  rebel,  track- 
ing the  secrets  of  astute  politicians,  and  triumphing 
nowhere  but  in  boudoirs  and  on  the  back-stairs  of 
cabinets  ? 

Is  there  not  something,  difficult  to  say  what,  of 
greatness  in  being  able  to  rise  to  the  highest  calcula- 
tions of  statesmen  and  then  to  fall  coldly  back  into 
the  void  of  a  frivolous  life?  Where  is  the  man  of  iron 
who  can  withstand  the  alternating  luck  of  gambling. 


128  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

the  rapid  missions  of  diplomacy,  the  warfare  of  fashion 
and  society,  the  dissipations  of  gallantry,  —  the  man 
who  makes  his  memory  a  library  of  lies  and  craft,  who 
envelops  such  diverse  thoughts,  such  conflicting  man- 
oeuvres, in  one  impenetrable  cloak  of  perfect  manners  ? 
If  the  wind  of  favor  had  blown  steadily  upon  those 
sails  forever  set,  if  the  luck  of  circumstances  had 
attended  Maxime,  he  could  have  been  Mazarin,  the 
Marechal  de  Richelieu,  Potemkin,  or — perhaps  more 
truly  —  Lauzun,  without  Pignerol. 

The  count,  though  rather  tall  and  constitutionally 
slender,  had  of  late  acquired  some  protuberance  of 
stomach,  but  he  "  restrained  it  to  the  majestic,"  as 
Brillat-Savarin  once  said.  His  clothes  were  always  so 
well  made,  that  he  kept  about  his  whole  person  an  air 
of  youth,  something  active  and  agile,  due  no  doubt  to 
his  habits  of  exercise,  —  fencing,  riding,  and  hunting. 
Maxime  possessed  all  the  physical  graces  and  elegances 
of  aristocracy,  still  further  increased  by  his  personally 
superior  bearing.  His  long,  Bourbonian  face  was  framed 
by  whiskers  and  a  beard,  carefully  kept,  elegantly  cut, 
and  black  as  jet.  This  color,  the  same  as  that  of  his 
abundant  hair,  he  now  obtained  by  an  Indian  cosmetic, 
very  costly  and  used  in  Persia,  the  secret  of  which  he 
kept  to  himself.  He  deceived  the  most  practised  eye 
as  to  the  white  threads  which  for  some  time  past  had 
invaded  his  hair.  The  remarkable  property,  of  this 
dye,  used  by  Persians  for  their  beards  only,  is  that  it 
does  not  render  the  features  hard ;  it  can  be  shaded 
by  indigo  to  harmonize  well  with  the  individual  char- 
acter of  the  skin.  It  was  this  operation  that  Madame 
MoUot  may  have  seen,  —  though  people  in  Arcis,  by 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  129 

way  of  a  jest,  still  ask  themselves  what  it  was  that 
Madame  Mollot  saw. 

Maxime  had  a  very  handsome  forehead,  blue  eyes, 
a  Greek  nose,  a  pleasant  mouth,  and  a  well-cut  chin ; 
but  the  circle  of  his  eyes  was  now  marked  with  num- 
berless lines,  so  fine  that  they  might  have  been  traced 
by  a  razor  and  not  visible  at  a  little  distance.  His 
temples  had  similar  lines.  The  face  was  also  slightly 
wrinkled.  His  eyes,  like  those  of  gamblers  who  have 
sat  up  innumerable  nights,  were  covered  with  a  glaze, 
but  the  glance,  though  it  was  thus  weakened,  was 
none  the  less  terrible,  —  in  fact,  it  terrified ;  a  hidden 
heat  was  felt  beneath  it,  a  lava  of  passions  not  yet 
extinct.  The  mouth,  once  so  fresh  and  rosy,  now  had. 
colder  tints ;  it  was  straight  no  longer,  but  inclined  to 
the  right,  — a  sinuosity  that  seemed  to  indicate  false- 
hood. Vice  had  twisted  the  lips,  but  the  teeth  were 
white  and  handsome. 

These  blemishes  disappeared  on  a  general  view  of 
his  face  and  person.  His  figure  was  so  attractive  that 
no  young  man  could  compete  with  Maxime  when  on 
horseback  in  the  Bois,  where  he  seemed  younger  and 
more  graceful  than  the  youngest  and  most  graceful 
among  them.  The  privilege  of  eternal  youth  has  been 
possessed  by  several  men  in  our  day. 

The  count  was  all  the  more  dangerous  because  he 
seemed  to  be  easy  and  indolent,  never  showing  the 
iron  determination  which  he  had  about  all  things.  This 
apparent  indifference,  which  enabled  him  to  abet  a 
popular  sedition  for  the  purpose  of  strengthening  the 
authority  of  a  prince  with  as  much  ability  as  he  would 
have  bestowed  upon  a  court  intrigue,  had  a   certain 

9 


130  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

grace.  People  never  distrust  calmness  and  uniformity 
of  manner,  especially  in  France,  where  we  are  accus- 
tomed to  a  great  deal  of  movement  and  stir  about  the 
smallest  things. 

The  count,  who  was  dressed  in  the  fashion  of  1839, 
wore  a  black  coat,  a  cashmere  waistcoat  of  dark  blue 
embroidered  with  tiny  flowers  of  a  lighter  blue,  black 
trousers,  gray  silk  stockings,  and  varnished  leather 
shoes.  His  watch,  placed  in  one  of  his  waistcoat 
pockets,  was  fastened  by  an  elegant  chain  to  a  button- 
hole. 

"  Rastignac,"  he  said,  accepting  the  cup  of  tea  which 
the  pretty  Madame  de  Eastignac  offered  him,  ''  will 
you  come  with  me  to  the  Austrian  ambassador's?  " 

"  My  dear  fellow,  I  am  too  recently  married  not  to 
go  home  with  my  wife." 

"  That  means  that  later  —  "  said  the  young  countess, 
turning  round  and  looking  at  her  husband. 

'*  Later  is  the  end  of  the  world,"  replied  Maxime. 
''  But  I  shall  certainly  win  my  cause  if  I  take  Madame 
for  a  judge." 

With  a  charming  gesture,  the  count  invited  the  prett}'^ 
countess  to  come  nearer  to  him.  After  listening  a  few 
moments  and  looking  at  her  mother,  she  said  to 
Rastignac :  — 

"If  you  want  to  go  to  the  embassy  with  Monsieur 
de  Trailles,  mamma  will  take  me  home." 

A  few  moments  later  the  Baronne  de  Nucingen  and 
the  Comtesse  de  Rastignac  went  away  together.  Max- 
ime and  Rastignac  followed  a  little  later,  and  when 
they  were  both  seated  in  the  count's  carriage,  the  latter 
said :  — 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  131 

*'  What  do  you  want  of  me,  Maxime?  Why  do  you 
take  IDC  by  the  throat  in  this  way  ?  What  did  you  say 
to  my  wife  ?  " 

'*  I  told  her  I  had  sonietliing  to  say  to  you.  You 
are  a  lucky  fellow,  you  are !  You  have  ended  by 
marrying  the  only  heiress  of  the  Nucingen  millions  — 
after  twenty  years  at  hard  labor." 

"  Maxime!  " 

''  But  I !  here  am  I,  exposed  to  the  doubts  of  every- 
body. A  miserable  coward  like  du  Tillet  dares  to  ask 
if  I  have  the  courage  to  kill  myself !  It  is  high  time 
for  me  to  settle  down.  Does  the  ministry  want  to  get 
rid  of  me,  or  does  it  not?  You  ought  to  know.  At 
any  rate,  you  must  find  out,"  continued  Maxime, 
making  a  gesture  with  his  hand  to  silence  Rastignac. 
"Here  is  my  plan:  listen  to  it.  You  ought  to  serve 
me,  for  I  have  served  you,  and  can  serve  you  again. 
The  life  I  live  now  is  intolerable ;  I  want  an  es- 
cape from  it.  Help  me  to  a  marriage  which  shall  bring 
me  half  a  million.  Once  married,  appoint  me  minister 
to  some  wretched  little  republic  in  America.  I  '11  stay 
there  long  enough  to  make  my  promotion  to  the  same 
post  in  Germany  legitimate.  If  I  am  worth  anything, 
tliey  will  soon  take  me  out  of  it  ;  if  [  am  not  worth 
anything,  they  can  dismiss  me.  Perhaps  I  may  have 
a  child.  If  so,  I  shall  be  stern  with  him ;  his  mother 
will  be  rich ;  I  '11  make  him  a  minister,  perhaps  an 
ambassador." 

"  Here  is  my  answer,"  said  Rastignac.  *'  An  inces- 
sant battle  is  going  on  —  greater  than  common  people 
who  are  not  in  it  have  any  idea  of  —  between  power 
in  its   swaddling-clothes  and  power  in  its  childhood. 


132  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

Power  in  swaddling-clothes  is  the  Chamber  of  Depu- 
ties which,  not  being  restrained  by  an  hereditary- 
chamber  —  *' 

"Ha!  ha!"  said  Maxime,  "you  are  now  a  peer  of 
France." 

"  I  should  say  the  same  if  I  were  not,"  said  the  new 
peer.  "  But  don't  interrupt  me  ;  you  are  concerned  in 
all  this.  The  Chamber  of  Deputies  is  fated  to  become 
the  whole  government,  as  de  Marsay  used  to  tell  us  (the 
only  man  by  whom  France  could  have  been  saved), 
for  peoples  don't  die  ;  they  are  slaves  or  free  men,  and 
that 's  all.  Child-power  is  the  royalty  that  was  crowned 
in  August,  1830.  The  present  ministry  is  beaten ;  it 
dissolves  the  Chamber  and  brings  on  a  general  election 
in  order  to  prevent  the  coming  ministry  from  calling 
one ;  but  it  does  not  expect  a  victory.  If  it  were  vic- 
torious in  these  elections,  the  dynasty  would  be  in 
danger  ;  whereas,  if  the  ministry  is  beaten,  the  dynastic 
party  can  fight  to  advantage  for  a  long  time.  The 
mistakes  of  the  Chamber  will  turn  to  the  profit  of  a  will 
which  wants,  unfortunately,  to  be  the  whole  political 
power.  When  a  ruler  is  that  whole,  as  Napoleon  was, 
there  comes  a  moment  when  he  must  supplement  him- 
self;  and  having  by  that  time  alienated  superior  men, 
he,  the  great  single  will,  can  find  no  assistant.  That 
assistant  ought  to  be  what  is  called  a  cabinet;  but 
there  is  no  cabinet  in  France,  there  is  only  a  Will  with 
a  life  lease.  In  France  it  is  the  government  that  is 
blamed,  the  opposition  never;  it  may  lose  as  many 
battles  as  it  fights,  but,  like  the  allies  in  1814,  one 
victory  suffices.  With  "  three  glorious  days  "  it  over- 
turned and  destroyed  everything.    Therefore,  if  we  are 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  133 

Heirs  of  power,  we  must  cease  to  govern,  and  wait.  I 
belong  by  my  personal  opinions  to  the  aristocracy,  and 
by  ray  public  opinions  to  the  royalty  of  July.  The 
house  of  Orleans  served  me  to  raise  the  fortunes  of  my 
family,  and  I  shall  ever  remain  attached  to  it." 

'''  The  '  ever'  of  Monsieur  de  Talleyrand,  be  it  under- 
stood," put  in  Maxime. 

**  At  this  moment  I  can't  do  anything  for  you,"  con- 
tinued Rastignac.  ''  We  shall  not  be  in  power  more 
than  six  months  longer.  Yes,  those  six  months  will  be 
our  last  dying  agony,  I  know  that ;  but  we  know  what 
we  were  when  we  formed  ourselves,  a  stop-gap  ministry 
and  that  was  all.  But  you  can  distinguish  yourself  in 
the  electoral  battle  that  is  soon  to  be  fought.  If  you 
can  bring  one  vote  to  the  Chamber,  a  deputy  faithful 
to  the  dynastic  cause,  you  will  find  your  wishes  grati- 
fied. I  will  speak  of  your  good  services,  and  I  will 
keep  my  eye  on  the  reports  of  our  confidential  agents ; 
I  may  find  you  some  difficult  task  in  which  you  can 
distinguish  yourself.  If  you  succeed,  I  can  insist  upon 
your  talents,  your  devotion,  and  claim  your  reward. 
Your  marriage,  my  dear  fellow,  can  be  made  only  in 
some  ambitious  provincial  family  of  tradespeople  or 
manufacturers.  In  Paris  you  are  too  well  known. 
We  must  therefore  look  out  for  a  millionaire  parvenu, 
endowed  with  a  daughter,  and  possessed  with  a  desire 
to  parade  himself  and  his  family  at  the  Chateau  des 
Tuileries." 

**  Make  your  father-in-law  lend  me  twenty-five  thou- 
sand francs  to  enable  me  to  wait  as  long  as  that ;  he 
will  then  have  an  interest  in  seeing  that  I  am  not  paid 
in  holy-water  if  I  succeed ;  he  will  further  a  rich 
marriage  for  his  own  sake." 


134  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

"You  are  wily,  Maxime,  and  you  distrust  me.  But 
I  like  able  men,  and  I  will  attend  to  your  affair." 

They  reached  the  Austrian  embassy.  The  Comte  de 
Rastignac  saw  the  minister  of  the  interior  in  one  of  the 
salons  and  went  to  talk  with  him  in  a  corner.  Comte 
Maxime  de  Trailles,  meantime,  was  apparently  en- 
grossed by  the  old  Comtesse  de  Listomere,  but  he  was, 
in  reality,  following  the  course  of  the  conversation 
between  the  two  peers  of  France ;  he  watched  their 
gestures,  interpreted  their  looks,  and  ended  by  catch- 
ing a  favorable  glance  cast  upon  him  by  the  minister. 

Maxime  and  Rastignac  left  the  embassy  together 
about  one  in  the  morning,  and  before  getting  into 
their  respective  carriages,  Rastignac  said  to  Maxime 
on  the  steps  of  the  portico:  "Come  and  see  me  just 
before  the  elections.  Between  now  and  then  I  shall 
know  in  what  locality  the  chances  of  the  ministry  are 
worst,  and  what  resources  two  heads  like  yours  and 
mine  can  find  there." 

"  But  my  twenty -five  thousand  francs  are  needed," 
replied  de  Trailles. 

"  Well,  you  must  hide  yourself,  that 's  all." 

Fifty  days  later,  one  morning  before  dawn,  the 
Comte  de  Trailles  went  to  the  rue  de  Varennes  mys- 
teriously in  a  hired  cab.  At  the  gate  of  the  ministry  of 
Public  Works,  he  sent  the  cab  away,  looked  about  him  to 
see  that  he  was  not  watched,  and  then  waited  in  a  little 
salon  on  the  first  floor  until  Rastignac  should  awake. 
A  few  moments  later  the  valet  who  had  taken  in  his  card 
ushered  Maxime  into  the  minister's  bed-chamber,  where 
that  statesman  was  making  his  morning  toilet. 

"  My  dear  Maxime,"  said  the  latter,  "  I  can  tell  you 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  135 

a  secret  which  will  be  in  the  newspapers  two  days 
hence,  and  which,  meantime,  you  can  turn  to  your  own 
profit.  That  poor  Charles  Keller,  who  danced  the 
mazurka  so  well,  has  been  killed  in  Africa.  His  death 
leaves  a  vacancy;  he  was  our  candidate  in  the  arron- 
dissementof  Arcis.  Here  is  a  copy  of  two  reports,  one 
from  the  sub-prefect,  the  other  from  the  commissary 
of  police,  informing  the  ministry  that  the  election  of 
the  poor  fellow  would  meet  with  opposition.  In  that  of 
the  commissary  of  police  you  will  find  some  information 
about  the  state  of  the  town  which  ought  to  be  useful 
to  a  man  of  your  shrewdness;  it  seems  that  the  am- 
bition of  the  rival  candidate  comes  chiefly  from  his 
desire  to  marry  a  certain  heiress.  To  one  of  your 
calibre  that  word  is  enough.  The  Cinq-Cygnes,  the 
Princesse  de  Cadignan,  and  Georges  de  Maufrigneuse 
are  living  at  Cinq-Cygne,  close  to  Arcis  ;  you  can  cer- 
tainly obtain  through  them  all  the  legitimist  votes, 
therefore  —  " 

**  Don't  waste  your  breath,"  said  Maxime.  "  Is  the 
commissary  still  there?" 

"  Yes." 

''  Give  me  a  letter  to  him." 

'^  My  dear  fellow,"  replied  Rastignac  giving  Max- 
ime quite  a  bundle  of  papers,  "  you  will  find  there  two 
letters  written  to  Gondreville  for  you.  You  have  been 
a  page  and  he  has  been  a  senator ;  you  can't  fail  there- 
fore to  understand  each  other.  Madame  Francois 
Keller  is  pious ;  here  is  a  letter  introducing  you  to  her 
from  the  Marechale  de  Carigliano.  The  mar^chale  has 
become  dynastic;  she  recommends  you  warmly,  and 
may  go  down   herself.     I   will   only  add   one  word : 


136  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

Distrust  the  sub-prefect,  whom  I  think  capable  of 
working  this  candidate,  this  Simon  Giguet,  into  a  sup- 
port for  himself  with  the  president  of  the  council.  If 
you  want  letters,  powers,  credentials,  write  to  me." 

"And  those  twenty-five  thousand  francs?"  said 
Maxime. 

**  Sign  this  note  to  the  order  of  du  Tillet,  and  here  's 
the  money." 

''  I  shall  succeed,"  said  the  count,  "  and  you  may 
tell  the  king  that  the  deputy  of  Arcis  shall  belong  to 
him  body  and  soul.  If  I  fail,  I  give  you  leave  to 
abandon  me." 

An  hour  later  Maxime  de  Trailles  was  in  his  tilbury 
on  the  road  to  Arcis. 


The  Deputy  of  Arc  is.  137 


XIII. 

PREFACE  BEFORE  LETTERING. 

Once  in  possession  of  the  information  furnished  by 
the  landlady  of  the  Mulet  and  by  the  sub-prefect 
Antonin  Goulard,  Monsieur  de  Trailles  had  soon  ar- 
ranged his  plan  of  electoral  operations,  and  this  plan 
evinces  itself  so  readily  that  the  reader  must  already 
have  perceived  it. 

To  the  candidacy  of  Simon  Giguet,  the  wily  agent 
of  the  government  policy  suddenly  and  abruptly  op- 
posed that  of  Phileas  Beauvisage ;  and  in  spite  of  the 
nullity  and  unfitness  of  that  individual  this  new  com- 
bination, we  must  admit,  had  several  incontestable 
chances  of  success.  In  the  light  of  his  municipal  halo 
Beauvisage  had  one  enormous  advantage  with  the  mass 
of  indifferent  voters ;  as  maN^or  of  the  town  his  name 
was  known  to  them.  Logic  has  much  more  to  do  with 
the  conducting  of  matters  and  things  here  below  than 
it  seems  to  have ;  it  is  like  a  woman  to  whom,  after 
many  infidelities,  we  still  return.  What  common-sense 
prescribes  is  that  voters  called  upon  to  choose  their 
representative  in  public  matters  should  be  thoroughly 
informed  as  to  his  capacity,  his  honesty,  and  his  gen- 
eral character.  Too  often,  in  practice,  unfortunate 
twists  are  given  to  this  principle;  but  whenever  the 
electoral  sheep,  left  to  their  own  instincts,  can  per* 


138  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

suade  themselves  that  they  are  voting  from  their  own 
intelligence  and  their  own  lights,  we  may  be  certain  to 
see  them  following  that  line  eagerly  and  with  a  senti- 
ment of  self-love.  Now  to  know  a  man's  name,  elec- 
torally  speaking,  is  a  good  beginning  toward  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  man  himself. 

Passing  from  indifferent  to  interested  electors,  we 
may  be  sure  that  Phileas  was  certain  of  rallying  to 
himself  the  Gondreville  party,  now  deprived  by  death 
of  their  own  candidate.  The  question  for  them  was 
to  punish  the  presumption  of  Simon  Giguet,  and  any 
candidate  would  be  acceptable  to  the  viceroy  of  Arcis. 
The  mere  nomination  of  a  man  against  his  grandson 
was  a  flagrant  act  of  hostility  and  ingratitude,  and  a 
check  to  the  count's  provincial  importance  which  must 
be  removed  and  punished  at  any  cost. 

Still,  when  the  first  news  of  his  electoral  ambition 
reached  his  father-in-law,  Beauvisage  was  met  by  an 
astonishment  little  flattering  to  his  feelings  and  not 
encouraging.  The  old  notary  had  gauged  his  son-in- 
law  once  for  all,  and  to  his  just  and  upright  mind  the 
idea  of  Phileas  as  a  public  man  produced  in  its  way 
the  disagreeable  effect  that  discordant  instruments  pro- 
duce upon  the  ear.  If  it  be  true  that  no  man  is  a 
prophet  in  his  own  country,  he  is  often  even  less  so 
in  his  own  family.  Still,  the  first  impression  once 
passed,  Grevin  would  doubtless  acclimatize  himself 
to  the  idea  of  an  expedient  which  would  chime  in  with 
the  plans  he  had  alread}^  made  for  Severine's  future. 
Besides,  for  the  safety  of  Gondreville's  interests,  so 
seriously  threatened,  what  sacrifice  of  his  own  opinion 
would  the  old  notary  not  have  made? 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  139 

With  the  legitimist  and  the  republican  parties  who 
could  have  no  weight  in  the  election,  except  that  of 
increasing  a  majority,  the  candidacy  of  Beauvisage 
had  a  singular  recommendation,  — namely,  his  utter  in- 
capacity. Conscious  of  not  possessing  sufficient 
strength  to  elect  a  deputy  of  their  own,  the  two  ex- 
tremes of  the  antidynastic  opposition  seized,  almost 
with  ardor,  the  opportunity  to  stick  a  thorn  in  the 
side  in  what  they  called  ''  the  present  order  of  things," 
and  it  might  confidently  be  expected  that  in  this  frame 
of  mind  they  would  joyfully  and  with  all  their  hearts 
support  a  candidate  so  supremely  ridiculous  that  a  large 
slice  of  the  ridicule  must  fall  upon  the  government 
which  supported  him. 

Moreover,  in  the  opinions  of  the  Left-Centre  which 
had  provisionally  adopted  Simon  Giguet  as  its  candi- 
date, this  move  of  Beauvisage  was  likely  to  produce  a 
serious  split ;  for  he  too  had  declared  himself  a  man 
of  the  dynastic  opposition,  and,  until  further  orders, 
Monsieur  de  Trailles  (though  all  the  while  assuring  him 
of  the  support  of  the  ministry)  encouraged  his  retain- 
ing that  political  tint,  which  was  clearly  the  most  popu: 
lar  in  that  region.  But  whatever  baggage  of  political 
convictions  the  incorruptible  deputy  of  Arcis  might 
bring  with  him  to  Paris,  his  horoscope  was  drawn :  it 
was  very  certain  that  after  his  first  appearance  in  the 
salons  of  the  Tuileries  an  august  seduction  would  make 
a  henchman  of  him,  if  ministerial  blandishments  had 
not  already  produced  that  result. 

The  public  side  of  this  matter  being  thus  well- 
planned  and  provided  for,  the  ministerial  agent  could 
turn  his  attention  to  the  personal  aspect  of  the  ques- 


140  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

tion,  namely,  that  of  turning  the  stuff  he  was  making 
into  a  deputy  to  the  still  further  use  of  being  made 
into  a  father-in-law. 

First  point,  the  dot;  second  point,  the  daughter; 
and  both  appeared  to  suit  him.  The  first  did  not  daz- 
zle him  ;  and  as  to  the  second,  he  did  not  conceal  from 
himself  the  imperfections  of  a  provincial  education 
which  he  should  have  to  unmake,  but  this  was  no  seri- 
ous objection  to  his  sapient  conjugal  pedagogy. 

Madame  Beauvisage,  when  the  matter  was  laid 
before  her,  swept  her  husband  into  it  at  a  single 
bound.  Maxime  recognized  her  for  an  ambitious 
woman  who,  in  spite  of  her  forty-four  years,  still  had 
the  air  of  being  conscious  of  a  heart.  Hence  he  saw 
that  the  game  had  better  begin  with  a  false  attack 
on  her  to  fall  back  later  on  the  daughter.  How  far 
these  advanced  works  should  be  pushed,  circumstances 
would  show.  In  either  case,  Maxime  was  well  aware 
that  his  title,  his  reputation  as  a  man  of  the  world, 
and  his  masterly  power  of  initiating  them  into  the 
difficult  and  elegant  mysteries  of  Parisian  society  were 
powerful  reasons  to  bind  the  two  women  to  him,  not 
to  speak  of  their  gratitude  for  the  political  success  of 
Monsieur  Beauvisage  of  which  he  was  the  author. 

But  however  all  this  might  be,  his  matrimonial  cam- 
paign offered  one  very  serious  difficulty.  The  consent 
of  old  Grevin  would  have  to  be  obtained,  and  he  was 
not  a  man  to  allow  Cecile  to  be  married  without  inves- 
tigating to  its  depths  the  whole  past  of  a  suitor. 
This  inquiry  made,  was  it  not  to  be  feared  that  the 
thirty  years'  stormy  biography  of  a  roue  would  seem 
to  the  cautious  old  man  a  poor  security  for  the  future? 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  141 

However,  the  species  of  governmental  mission  with 
which  Monsieur  de  Trailles  appeared  in  Arcis  might 
seem  to  be  an  offset  and  even  a  condonation  that  would 
neutralize  the  effect  of  such  disclosures.  By  getting 
the  Comte  de  Gondreville  to  confide  the  news  of.  that 
mission  to  old  Grevin  before  it  was  publicly  made 
known,  he  had  flattered  the  old  man's  vanity  and 
obtained  a  certain  foothold  in  his  mind.  Moreover, 
he  determined,  when  the  time  came,  to  forestall  the 
old  notary's  distrust  by  seeming  to  distrust  himself, 
and  to  propose,  as  a  precaution  against  his  old  habits 
of  extravagance,  to  introduce  a  clause  into  the  mar- 
riage-contract providing  for  the  separation  of  property 
and  settling  the  wife's  fortune  upon  herself.  In  this 
way  he  gave  security  against  any  return  to  his  old 
habits  of  prodigality.  As  for  himself,  it  was  his  affair 
to  obtain  such  empire  over  his  wife  by  the  power  of 
sentiment  that  he  could  recover  practically  the  marital 
power  of  which  the  contract  dispossessed  him. 

At  first  nothing  occurred  to  contradict  the  wisdom 
and  clearsightedness  of  all  these  intentions.  The 
Beauvisage  candidacy  being  made  public  took  fire 
like  a  train  of  gunpowder,  and  Monsieur  de  Trailles 
was  able  to  feel  such  assurance  of  the  success  of  his 
efforts  that  he  wrote  to  Rastignac  informing  him  of 
the  fortunate  and  highly  successful  progress  of  his 
mission. 

But,  all  of  a  sudden,  in  face  of  the  triumphant 
Beauvisage  arose  another  candidate;  and,  be  it  said  in 
passing  for  the  sake  of  our  history,  this  rivalry  pre- 
sented itself  under  such  exceptional  and  unforeseen 
circumstances  that  it  changed  what  might  have  been 


142  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

a  trivial  electoral  struggle  into  a  drama  possessing 
wider  and  more  varied  interests. 

The  man  who  now  appears  in  this  narrative  will 
play  so  considerable  a  part  in  it  that  it  seems  neces- 
sary, to  install  him,  as  it  were,  by  means  of  retro- 
spective and  somewhat  lengthy  explanations.  But  to 
suspend  the  course  of  the  narrative  for  this  purpose 
would  be  to  fly  in  the  face  of  every  rule  of  art  and  ex- 
pose the  present  pious  guardian  of  literary  orthodoxy 
to  the  wrath  of  critics.  In  presence  of  this  difficulty, 
the  author  would  find  himself  greatly  embarrassed,  if 
his  lucky  star  had  not  placed  in  his  hands  a  corre- 
spondence in  which,  with  a  vim  and  animation  that 
he  himself  could  never  have  imparted  to  them,  all  the 
details  that  are  essential  to  a  full  explanation  will  be 
found  related. 

These  letters  must  be  read  with  attention.  They 
bring  upon  the  scene  many  persons  already  well-known 
in  the  Comedy  of  Human  Life,  and  they  reveal  a  vast 
number  of  facts  necessary  to  the  understanding  and 
development  of  the  present  drama.  Their  statements 
made,  and  brought  to  the  point  where  we  now  seem 
to  abandon  our  narrative,  the  course  of  that  narrative 
will,  without  concussion  and  quite  naturally,  resume 
its  course;  and  we  like  to  persuade  ourselves  that,  by 
thus  introducing  this  series  of  letters,  the  unity  of  our 
tale,  which  seemed  for  a  moment  in  danger,  will  be 
maintained. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  143 

PART   SECOND. 
LETTERS    EXPLANATORY. 


I.     THE    COMTE    DE    l'eSTORADE    TO    MONSIEUR   MARIE- 
GASTON.^ 

Dear  Monsieur,  —  In  accordance  with  your  desire 
I  have  seen  the  prefect  of  police,  in  order  to  ascertain 
if  the  pious  intention  of  which  you  wrote  me  in  your 
letter,  dated  from  Carrara,  would  meet  with  opposition 
from  the  authorities. 

The  prefect  informed  me  that  the  imperial  decree  of 
the  23rd  Prairial,  year  XIL,  by  which  the  whole  sys- 
tem of  burials  is  still  regulated,  establishes,  in  the 
most  unequivocal  manner,  the  right  of  all  persons  to 
be  interred  on  their  own  property.  You  have  only  to 
obtain  a  permit  from  the  prefecture  of  the  Seine-et- 
Oise,  and  then,  without  further  formality,  you  can 
remove  the  remains  of  Madame  Marie-Caston  to  the 
mausoleum  you  propose  to  erect  in  your  park  at  Ville- 
d'Avray. 

But  I  shall  venture  myself  to  offer  an  objection. 
Are  you  quite  sure  that  you  will  not  expose  yourself  to 
certain  difficulties  made  by  the  Chaulieus,  with  whom 
you  are  not  on  the  best  of  terms  ? 

Will  they  not,  to  a  certain  extent,  be  justified  in 
complaining  that  the  removal  from  a  public  cemetery 
to  private  grounds  of  the  body  of  one  who  is  dear  to. 
1  See  "  The  Memoirs  of  Two  Young  Married  Women.  " 


144  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

them  as  well  as  to  you,  would  make  their  visits  to 
her  grave  entirely  depeudeiit  on  your  good  will  and 
pleasure?  For  of  course,  and  this  is  evident,  you  will 
always  have  the  right  to  forbid  their  entrance  to  your 
property. 

I  know  that,  legally,  the  body  of  the  wife,  living  or 
dead,  belongs  to  the  husband,  to  the  exclusion  of  her 
relations,  even  the  nearest;  but,  under  the  influence 
of  the  ill-will  of  which  they  have  already  given  you 
proof,  the  relations  of  Madame  Marie-Gaston  might 
have  the  distressing  idea  of  carrying  the  matter  into 
court,  and  if  so,  how  painful  to  you!  You  would 
gain  the  suit,  no  doubt,  for  the  Due  de  Chaulieu's 
influence  is  not  what  it  was  under  the  Restoration; 
but  have  you  reflected  on  the  venom  which  the  speech 
of  a  lawyer  might  shed  upon  such  a  question?  and  re- 
member that  he  will  speak  as  the  echo  of  honorable  af- 
fections —  those  of  a  father,  mother,  and  two  brothers 
asking  not  to  be  deprived  of  the  sad  happiness  of 
praying  at  the  grave  of   their  lost  one. 

If  you  will  let  me  express  my  thought,  it  is  not 
without  keen  regret  that  I  see  you  engaged  in  creat- 
ing fresh  nourishment  for  your  grief,  already  so  long 
inconsolable.  We  had  hoped  that,  after  passing  two 
years  in  Italy,  you  would  return  to  us  more  resigned, 
and  able  to  take  up  an  active  life  which  might  distract 
your  mind.  Evidently,  this  species  of  temple  which 
you  propose,  in  the  fervor  of  your  recollections,  to 
erect  in  a  spot  where  they  are,  alas !  already  too  num- 
erous, can  only  serve  to  perpetuate  their  bitterness; 
and  I  cannot  approve  the  revival  you  are  proposing 
to  make  of  them. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  145 

Nevertheless,  as  we  should  always  serve  a  friend 
according  to  his  wishes,-  not  our  own,  1  have  done 
your  commission  relating  to  Monsieur  Dorlange,  the 
sculptor,  but  I  must  tell  you  frankly  that  he  showed  no 
eagerness  to  enter  into  your  wishes.  His  first  remark, 
when  I  announced  myself  as  coming  from  you,  was 
that  he  did  not  know  you;  and  this  reply,  singular  as 
it  may  seem  to  you,  was  made  so  naturally  that  at 
first  I  thought  there  must  be  some  mistake,  the  result, 
possibly,  of  confusion  of  name.  However,  before 
long  your  oblivious  friend  was  willing  to  agree  that 
he  studied  with  you  at  the  college  of  Tours  and  also 
that  he  was  the  same  Monsieur  Dorlange  who,  in  1831 
and  under  quite  exceptional  circumstances,  carried  off 
the  grand  prize  for  sculpture.  No  doubt  remained  in 
my  mind  as  to  his  identity.  I  attributed  his  want  of 
memory  to  the  long  interruption  (of  which  you  your- 
self told  me)  in  your  intercourse.  I  think  that  that 
interruption  wounded  him  more  than  you  are  aware, 
and  when  he  seemed  to  have  forgotten  your  very  name, 
it  was  simply  a  revenge  he  could  not  help  taking  when 
the  occasion  offered. 

But  that  was  not  the  real  obstacle.  Remembering 
the  fraternal  intimacy  that  once  existed  between 
Monsieur  Dorlange  and  yourself,  I  could  not  suppose 
his  wounded  feelings  inexorable.  So,  after  explaining 
to  him  the  nature  of  the  work  you  wanted  him  to  do,  I 
was  about  to  say  a  few  words  as  to  the  grievance  he 
might  have  against  you,  when  I  suddenly  found  myself 
face  to  face  with  an  obstacle  of  a  most  unexpected 
nature. 

**  Monsieur,"  he  said  to  me,  '*  the  importance  of  the 

10 


146  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

order  you  wish  to  give  me,  the  assurance  that  no 
expense  should  be  spared  for  the  grandeur  and  per- 
fection of  the  work,  the  invitation  you  convey  to  me  to 
go  to  Carrara  and  choose  the  marble  and  see  it 
excavated,  all  that  is  truly  a  great  piece  of  good 
fortune  for  an  artist,  and  at  any  other  time  I  should 
gladly  have  accepted  it.  But  at  the  present  moment, 
without  having  actually  decided  to  abandon  the  career 
of  Art,  I  am  on  the  point  of  entering  that  of  politics. 
My  friends  urge  me  to  present  myself  at  the  coming 
elections,  and  you  will  easily  see  that,  if  elected,  my 
parliamentary  duties  and  my  initiation  into  an  abso- 
lutely new  life  would,  for  a  long  time  at  least,  preclude 
my  entering  with  sufficient  absorption  of  mind  into  the 
work  you  propose  to  me."  And  then,  after  a  pause,  he 
added  :  "  I  should  have  to  satisfy  a  great  grief  which 
seeks  consolation  from  this  projected  mausoleum. 
Such  grief  would,  naturally,  be  impatient;  whereas  I 
should  be  slow,  preoccupied  in  mind,  and  probably 
hindered.  It  is  therefore  better  that  the  proposal 
should  be  made  elsewhere ;  but  this  will  not  prevent 
me  from  feeling,  as  I  ought,  both  gratified  and  honored 
by  the  confidence  shown  in  me." 

I  thought  for  a  moment  of  asking  him  whether,  in 
case  his  election  failed,  I  could  then  renew  the  proposal, 
l>ut  on  the  whole  I  contented  myself  with  expressing 
regret  and  saying  that  I  would  inform  you  of  the  result 
of  my  mission.  It  is  useless  to  add  that  I  shall  know  in 
a  few  days  the  upshot  of  this  sudden  parliamentary 
ambition  which  has,  so  inopportunely,  started  up  in 
your  way. 

I  think  myself  that  this  candidacy   may  be  only  a 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  147 

blind.  Had  you  not  better  write  yourself  to  Monsieur 
Dorlange?  for  his  whole  manner,  though  perfectly 
polite  and  proper,  seemed  to  show  a  keen  remembrance 
of  the  wrong  you  did  him  in  renouncing  his  friendship, 
with  that  of  your  other  friends,  at  the  time  of  your 
marriage.  I  know  it  may  cost  you  some  pain  to 
explain  the  really  exceptional  circumstances  of  your 
marriage ;  but  after  what  I  have  seen  in  the  mind 
of  your  old  friend,  1  think,  if  you  really  wish  for  the 
assistance  of  his  great  talent,  you  should  personally 
take  some  steps  to  obtain  it. 

But  if  you  feel  that  any  such  action  is  more  than  you 
have  strength  for,  I  suggest  another  means.  In  all 
matters  in  which  my  wife  has  taken  part  I  have  found 
her  a  most  able  negotiator ;  and  in  this  particular  case 
I  should  feel  the  utmost  confidence  in  her  intervention. 
She  herself  suffered  from  the  exclusiveness  of  Madame 
Marie-Gaston's  love  for  you.  No  one  can  explain  to 
him  better  than  she  the  absorbing  conjugal  life  which 
drew  its  folds  so  closely  around  you.  And  it  seems  to 
me  that  the  magnanimity  and  comprehension  which  she 
always  showed  to  her  ''dear  lost  treasure,"  as  she 
calls  her,  might  be  conveyed  by  her  to  your  friend. 

You  have  plenty  of  time  to  think  over  this  suggestion, 
for  Madame  de  I'Estorade  is,  just  now,  still  suffering 
from  a  serious  illness,  brought  on  by  maternal  terror. 
A  week  ago  our  little  Nais  came  near  being  crushed  to 
death  before  her  eyes;  and  without  the  courageous 
assistance  of  a  stranger  who  sprang  to  the  horses* 
heads  and  stopped  them  short,  God  knows  what  dread- 
ful misfortune  would  have  overtaken  us.  This  cruel 
emotion  produced  in  Madame  de  I'Estorade  a  nervous 


148  The  Deputy  of  Areis. 

condition  which  seriously  alarmed  us  for  a  time. 
Though  she  is  now  much  better,  it  will  be  several  days 
before  she  could  see  Monsieur  Dorlange  in  case  her 
feminine  mediation  may  seem  to  you  desirable. 

But  once  more,  in  closing,  my  dear  Monsieur  Gaston, 
would  it  not  be  better  to  abandon  your  idea?  A  vast 
expense,  a  painful  quarrel  with  the  Chaulieus,  and,  for 
you,  a  renewal  of  your  bitter  sorrow  —  this  is  what  I 
fear.  Nevertheless,  I  am,  at  all  times  and  for  all 
things,  entirely  at  your  orders,  as  indeed  my  sentiments 
of  esteem  and  gratitude  command. 

II.     THE   COMTESSE    DE    l'eSTORADE    TO     MADAME   OCTAVE 
DE   CAMPS. 

Paris,  February,  1839. 

Dear  Madame  de  Camps,  —  Of  all  the  proofs  of 
sympathy  which  the  accident  to  my  dear  child  has 
brought  me,  not  one  has  touched  me  so  much  as  your 
excellent  letter. 

In  reply  to  your  affectionate  solicitude  I  must  tell 
you  that  in  that  terrible  moment  NaVs  was  marvellously 
calm  and  self-possessed.  It  could  not,  I  think,  be 
possible  to  see  death  nearer ;  yet  neither  before  nor 
after  the  accident  did  my  valiant  little  daughter  even 
blench ;  her  whole  behavior  showed  the  utmost 
resolution,  and,  thank  God !  her  health  has  not  suffered 
for  a  moment. 

As  for  me,  in  consequence  of  such  terror,  I  was 
seized  with  convulsive  spasms,  and  for  several  days,  as 
I  now  hear,  the  doctors  were  very  uneasy,  and  even 
feared  for  my  reason.  But  thanks  to  the  strength  of 
my  constitution,  I  am  now  almost  myself  again,  and 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  149 

nothing  would  remain  of  this  cruel  agitation  if,  by  a 
singular  fatality,  it  were  not  connected  with  another 
unpleasant  circumstance  which  has  lately  seen  fit  to 
fasten  upon  my  life. 

Before  receiving  from  your  letter  these  fresh  assur- 
ances of  your  regard,  I  had  thought  of  invoking  the  help 
of  your  friendship  and  advice ;  and  to-day,  when  you 
tell  me  that  it  would  make  you  happy  and  proud  to 
take  the  place  of  my  poor  Louise  de  Chaulieu,  the 
precious  friend  of  whom  death  has  deprived  me,  can  I 
hesitate  for  a  moment? 

I  take  you  at  your  word,  and  that  delightful  clever- 
ness witii  which  you  foiled  tlie  fools  who  commented  on 
your  marriage  to  Monsieur  de  Camps  [see  "  Madame 
Firmiani "],  that  singular  tact  with  which  we  saw  you 
steer  your  way  through  circumstances  that  were  full  of 
embarrassment  and  danger,  in  short  the  wonderful  art 
which  enabled  you  to  keep  both  your  secret  and  your 
dignity,  I  now  ask  you  to  put  to  the  service  of  assist- 
ing me  in  the  dilemma  I  mentioned  just  now. 

Unfortunately  in  consulting  a  physician  we  naturally 
want  to  see  him  and  tell  our  symptoms  viva  voce,  and 
it  is  here  that  Monsieur  de  Camps  with  his  industrial 
genius  seems  to  me  most  aggravating.  Thanks  to 
those  vilianous  iron-works  which  he  has  taken  it  into 
his  head  to  purchase,  you  are  almost  lost  to  Paris  and 
to  society !  Formerly  when  we  had  you  here,  at  hand, 
in  ten  minutes  talk,  without  embarrassment,  without 
preparation,  I  could  have  told  you  everything ;  but 
now  T  am  obliged  to  think  over  what  I  have  to  say, 
to  gather  myself  together,  and  pass  into  the  solemnity 
of  a  written  statement. 


150  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

But  after  all,  perhaps  it  is  better  to  plunge  boldly 
in,  and  since,  in  spite  of  circumlocutions  and  preambles, 
I  shall  have  sooner  or  later  to  come  to  the  point,  why 
not  say  at  once  that  my  trouble  concerns  the  stranger 
who  saved  my  daughter's  life. 

Stranger  !  yes,  a  stranger  to  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade 
and  to  all  who  have  told  you  about  the  accident,  but 
not  a  stranger  to  me,  whom,  for  the  last  three  months, 
this  man  has  condescended  to  honor  with  the  most 
obstinate  attention.  That  the  mother  of  three  children, 
one  of  them  a  big  boy  of  fifteen,  should  at  thirty-three 
years  of  age  become  the  object  of  an  ardent  passion 
will  seem  to  you,  as  it  does  to  me,  an  impossible  fact ; 
and  that  is  the  ridiculous  misfortune  about  which  I 
want  to  consult  you. 

When  I  say  that  this  stranger  is  known  to  me,  I 
must  correct  myself ;  for  I  know  neither  his  name,  nor 
his  abode,  nor  anything  about  him.  I  have  never  met 
him  in  society,  and  I  may  add  that,  although  he  wears 
the  ribbon  of  the  Legion  of  honoi-,  there  is  nothing  in 
his  air  and  manner  —  which  are  totally  devoid  of  ele- 
gance —  to  make  me  suppose  I  ever  shall  meet  him  in 
our  world. 

It  was  at  Saint-Thomas  d'Aquin,  where,  as  you 
know,  I  go  to  hear  mass,  that  this  annoying  obsession 
began.  I  used  almost  daily  to  take  my  children  to 
walk  in  the  Tuileries,  as  the  house  we  have  hired  here 
has  no  garden.  This  habit  being  noticed  by  my  perse- 
cutor, I  found  him  repeatedly  there  and  wherever  else 
I  might  be  met  outside  of  my  own  home.  Perfectly 
discreet,  although  so  audacious,  this  singular  follower 
never  accompanied  me  to  my  own  door ;  he  kept  at  a 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  151 

sufTicient  distance  to  give  me  the  comfort  of  feeling  that 
his  foolish  assiduity  would  not  be  observed  by  others. 

Heaven  only  knows  the  sacrifices  and  annoyances  I 
have  borne  to  be  rid  of  him.  I  never  go  to  church 
now  except  on  Sundays ;  I  often  keep  my  dear  chil- 
dren at  home  to  the  injury  of  their  health ;  or  else  I 
make  excuses  not  to  accompany  them,  and  against  all 
my  principles  of  education  and  prudence,  I  leave  them 
to  the  care  of  the  servants.  Visits,  shopping  I  do 
only  in  a  carriage,  which  did  not  prevent  my  shadow 
from  being  at  hand  when  the  accident  happened  to 
Nais,  and  saving  her  life,  an  act  that  was  brave  and 
providential. 

But  it  is  precisely  this  great  obligation  I  am  now 
under  which  makes  —  does  it  not,  I  appeal  to  you?  — 
a  most  deplorable  complication. 

In  the  first  place,  about  thanking  him.  If  I  do  that, 
I  encourage  him,  and  he  would  certainly  take  advan- 
tage of  it  to  change  the  character  of  our  present  inter- 
course. But  if  I  pass  him  without  notice  —  think  of 
it !  a  mother  —  a  mother  who  owes  him  the  life  of  her 
daughter,  to  pretend  not  to  see  him !  to  pass  him  with- 
out a  single  word  of  gratitude ! 

That,  however,  is  the  intolerable  alternative  in  which 
I  find  myself  placed,  and  you  can  now  see  how  much  I 
need  the  counsels  of  your  experience.  What  can  I  do 
to  break  the  unpleasant  habit  this  man  has  taken  of 
being  my  shadow?  How  shall  I  thank  him  without 
encouraging  him?  or  not  thank  him  without  incurring 
self-reproach? 

Those  are  the  problems  submitted  to  your  wisdom. 
If  you  will  do  me  the  kindness  to  solve  them  —  and  I 


152  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

know  no  one  so  capable  —  I  shall  add  gratitude  to  all 
the  other  affectionate  sentiments  which,  as  you  know, 
I  have  so  long  felt  for  you. 


III.     THE    COMTE    DE    l'eSTORADE    TO     MONSIEUR 
MARIE- GASTON. 

Paris,  February,  1839. 

Perhaps,  my  dear  Monsieur  Gaston,  the  public 
journals  will  have  told  you  before  this  letter  can  arrive 
of  the  duel  fought  yesterday  between  your  friend  Mon- 
sieur Dorlange  and  the  Due  de  Rhetore.  But  the 
papers,  while  announcing  the  fact  as  a  piece  of  news, 
are  debarred  by  custom  and  propriety  from  inferring 
the  motives  of  a  quarrel,  and  therefore  they  will  only 
excite  your  curiosity  without  satisfying  it. 

I  have,  fortunately,  heard  from  a  very  good  source, 
all  the  details  of  the  affair,  and  I  hasten  to  transmit 
them  to  you ;  they  are,  I  think,  of  a  nature  to  interest 
you  to  the  highest  degree. 

Three  days  ago,  that  is  to  say  on  the  very  evening 
of  the  day  when  I  paid  my  visit  to  Monsieur  Dorlange, 
the  Due  de  Ehetore  occupied  a  stall  at  the  Opera-house. 
Next  to  him  sat  Monsieur  de  Ronquerolles,  who  has 
recently  returned  from  a  diplomatic  mission  which 
kept  him  out  of  France  for  several  years.  During  the 
entr'acte  these  gentlemen  did  not  leave  their  seats  to 
walk  about  the  foyer ;  but,  as  is  often  done,  they  stood 
np,  with  their  backs  to  the  stage,  facing  the  audience 
and  consequently  Monsieur  Dorlange,  who  was  seated 
directl}^  behind  them,  seeming  to  be  absorbed  in  an 
evening  newspaper.     There  had  been  that  day  a  very 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  153 

scandalous,  or  what  is  called  a  very  interesting,  session 
of  the  Chamber  of  deputies. 

The  conversation  between  the  duke  and  the  marquis 
having  naturally  turned  on  the  events  of  Parisian 
society  which  had  taken  place  during  Monsieur  de 
Ronquerolles'  absence,  the  latter  made  the  following 
remark  which  was  of  a  nature  to  rouse  the  attention 
of  Monsieur  Dorlange. 

'*Your  poor  sister  Madame  de  Macumer!  what  a 
sad  end,  after  her  singular  marriage!" 

*'Ah!  you  know,"  replied  Monsieur  de  Rhetore,  in 
that  high-pitched  voice  of  his,  "my  sister  had  too 
much  imagination  not  to  be  romantic  and  visionary. 
She  loved  her  first  husband,  Monsieur  de  Macumer, 
passionately,  but  after  a  time  one  gets  tired  of  every- 
thing, even  widowhood.  This  Marie-Gaston  crossed 
her  path.  Pie  is  agreeable  in  person;  my  sister  was 
rich;  he  was  deeply  in  debt  and  behaved  with  corre- 
sponding eagerness  and  devotion.  The  result  was 
that  the  scoundrel  not  only  succeeded  Monsieur  de 
Macumer  and  killed  his  wife  with  jealousy,  but  he 
got  out  of  her  every  penny  the  law  allowed  the  poor 
foolish  woman  to  dispose  of.  My  sister's  property 
amounted  to  at  least  twelve  hundred  thousand  francs, 
not  counting  a  delightful  villa  splendidly  furnished 
which  she  built  at  Ville  d'Avray.  Half  of  this  that 
man  obtained,  the  other  half  went  to  the  Due  and 
Duchesse  de  Chaulieu,  my  father  and  mother,  who 
were  entitled  to  it  by  law  as  heirs  ascendant.  As  for 
my  brother  Lenoncourt  and  myself,  we  were  simply 
disinherited." 

As  soon  as  your  name,  my  dear  Monsieur  Gaston, 


154  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

was  uttered,  Monsieur  Dorlange  laid  aside  his  news- 
paper, and  then,  as  Monsieur  de  Rhetore  ended  his 
remarks,  he  rose  and  said:  — 

"Pardon  me.  Monsieur  le  due,  if  I  venture  to  cor- 
rect your  statement;  but,  as  a  matter  of  conscience, 
I  ought  to  Inform  you  that  you  are  totally  misin- 
formed." 

•'What  is  that  you  say?  "  returned  the  duke,  blink- 
ing his  eyes  and  speaking  in  that  contemptuous  tone 
we  can  all  imagine. 

"1  say.  Monsieur  le  due,  that  Marie-Gaston  is  my 
friend  from  childhood;  he  has  never  been  thought  a 
scoundrel;  on  the  contrary,  the  world  knows  him  as  a 
man  of  honor  and  talent.  So  far  from  killing  his  wife 
with  jealousy,  he  made  her  perfectly  happy  during 
the  three  years  their  marriage  lasted.  As  for  the 
property  —  " 

"Have  you  considered,  monsieur,"  said  the  Due 
de  Khetore,  interrupting  him,  *'the  result  of  such 
language?" 

"Thoroughly,  monsieur;  and  I  repeat  that  the  prop- 
erty left  to  Marie-Gaston  by  the  will  of  his  wife  is  so 
little  desired  by  him  that,  to  my  knowledge,  he  is  about 
to  spend  a  sum  of  two  or  three  hundred  thousand 
francs  in  building  a  mausoleum  for  a  wife  whom  he 
has  never  ceased  to  mourn." 

"After  all,  monsieur,  who  are  you?  "  said  the  Due 
dp.  Rhetore,  again  interrupting  him  with  ill-restrained 
impatience. 

"Presently,"  replied  Monsieur  Dorlange,  "I  shall 
have  the  honor  to  tell  you;  you  must  now  permit  me 
to  add  that  the  property  of  which  you  say  you  have 


The  Deputy  of  Arcls,  155 

been  disinherited  Madame  Marie-Gastou  had  the 
right  to  dispose  of  without  any  remorse  of  conscience. 
It  came  from  her  first  husband,  the  Baron  deMacumer; 
and  she  had,  previously  to  that  marriage,  given  up 
her  own  property  in  order  to  constitute  a  fortune  for 
your  brother,  the  Due  de  Lenoncourt-Givry,  who,  as 
younger  son,  had  not,  like  you.  Monsieur  le  Due,  the 
advantages  of  an  entail." 

So  saying.  Monsieur  Dorlange  felt  in  his  pocket  for 
his  card-case. 

"I  have  no  cards  with  me,"  he  said  at  last,  "but 
my  name  is  Dorlange,  a  theatrical  name,  easy  to 
remember,  and  I  live  at  No.  42  rue  de  TOuest." 

*'Not  a  very  central  quarter,"  remarked  Monsieur 
de  Rhetore,  ironically.  Then  turning  to  Monsieur  de 
Ronquerolles,  whom  he  thus  constituted  one  of  his 
seconds,  '*I  beg  your  pardon,  my  dear  fellow,"  he 
said,  "for  the  voyage  of  discovery  you  will  have  to 
undertake  for  me  to-morrow  morning."  And  then 
almost  immediately  he  added:  "Come  to  the  foyer; 
we  can  talk  there  with  greater  safety.'* 

By  his  manner  of  accenting  the  last  word  it  was 
impossible  to  mistake  the  insulting  meaning  he  intended 
to  attach  to  it. 

The  two  gentlemen  having  left  their  seats,  without 
this  scene  attracting  any  notice,  in  consequence  of 
the  stalls  being  empty  for  the  most  part  during  the 
entr'acte.  Monsieur  Dorlange  saw  at  some  distance  the 
celebrated  sculptor  Stidmann,  and  went  up  to  him. 

'4Iave  you  a  note-book  of  any  kind  in  your  pocket?  " 
he  said. 

'^Yes,  I  always  carry  one." 


156  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

"Will  you  lend  it  to  me  and  let  me  tear  out  a  page? 
I  have  an  idea  in  my  mind  which  I  don't  want  to  lose. 
If  I  do  not  see  you  again  after  the  play  to  make  resti- 
tution, I  will  send  it  to  you  to-morrow  morning  without 
fail." 

Returning  to  his  place,  Monsieur  Dorlange  sketched 
something  rapidly,  and  when  the  curtain  rose  and  the 
two  gentlemen  returned  to  their  seats,  he  touched  the 
Due  de  Rhetore  lightly  on  the  shoulder  and  said, 
giving  him  the  drawing :  — 

"My  card,  which  I  have  the  honor  to  present  to 
you." 

This  "card"  was  a  charming  sketch  of  an  architec- 
tural design  placed  in  a  landscape.  Beneath  it  was 
written  "Plan  for  a  mausoleum  to  be  erected  to  the 
memory  of  Madame  Marie-Gaston,  nee  Chaulieu,  by 
her  husband;  from  the  designs  of  Charles  Dorlange, 
sculptor,  42  rue  de  I'Ouest." 

It  was  impossible  to  let  Monsieur  de  Rhetore  know 
more  delicately  that  he  had  to  do  with  a  suitable 
adversary;  and  you  will  remark,  my  dear  Monsieur 
Gaston,  that  Monsieur  Dorlange  made  this  drawing 
the  means  of  enforcing  his  denial  and  giving  proof 
of  your  disinterestedness  and  the  sincerity  of  your 
grief." 

After  the  play  was  over,  Monsieur  de  Rhetore  parted 
from  Monsieur  de  Ronquerolles,  and  the  latter  went 
up  to  Monsieur  Dorlange  and  endeavored,  very  cour- 
teously, to  bring  about  a  reconciliation,  remarking  to 
him  that,  while  he  was  right  in  the  subject-matter,  his 
method  of  proceeding  was  unusual  and  offensive; 
Monsieur  de  Rhetore,  on  the  other  hand,  had  shown 


The  Deputy  of  Areis.  157 

great  moderation,  and  would  now  be  satisfied  with  a 
mere  expression  of  regret;  in  short,  Monsieur  de 
Konquerolles  said  all  that  can  be  said  on  such  an 
occasion. 

Monsieur  Dorlange  would  not  listen  to  anything 
which  seemed  a  submission  on  his  part,  and  the  next 
day  he  received  a  visit  from  Monsieur  de  Ronquerolles 
and  General  Montriveau  on  behalf  of  the  Due  de 
Rhetors.  Again  an  effort  was  made  to  induce  Mon- 
sieur Dorlange  to  give  another  turn  to  his  words.  But 
your  friend  would  not  depart  from  this  ultimatum:  — 

''Will  Monsieur  de  Rhetora  withdraw  the  words  I 
felt  bound  to  notice;  if  so,  I  will  withdraw  mine." 

''But  that  is  impossible,"  they  said  to  him.  "Mon- 
sieur de  Rhetor^  has  been  personally  insulted;  you, 
on  the  contrary,  have  not  been.  Right  or  wrong,  he 
has  the  conviction  that  Monsieur  Marie-Gaston  has 
done  him  an  injury.  We  must  always  make  certain 
allowances  for  wounded  self-interests ;  you  can  never 
get  absolute  justice  from  them." 

"It  comes  to  this,  then,"  replied  Monsieur  Dorlange, 
"that  Monsieur  de  Rhetor^  may  continue  to  calumni- 
ate my  friend  at  his  ease ;  in  the  first  place,  because 
he  is  in  Italy;  and  secondly,  because  Marie-Gaston 
would  always  feel  extreme  repugnance  to  come  to  cer- 
tain extremities  with  the  brother  of  his  wife.  It  is 
precisely  that  powerlessness,  relatively  speaking,  to 
defend  himself,  which  constitutes  my  right  —  I  will 
say  more  —  my  duty  to  interfere.  It  was  not  without 
a  special  permission  of  Providence  that  I  was  enabled 
to  catch  a  few  of  the  malicious  words  that  were  said 
of  him,  and,  as  Monsieur  de  Rhetore  declines  to  modify 


158  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

any  of  them,  we  must,  if  it  please  you,  continue  this 
matter  to  the  end." 

The  duel  then  became  inevitable;  the  terms  were 
arranged  in  the  course  of  the  day,  and  the  meeting, 
with  pistols,  was  appointed  for  the  day  after.  On  the 
ground  Monsieur  Dorlange  was  perfectly  cool.  When 
the  first  fire  was  exchanged  without  result,  the  seconds 
proposed  to  put  an  end  to  the  affair. 

*'No,  one  more  shot! "  he  said  gayly,  as  if  he  were 
shooting  in  a  pistol-gallery. 

This  time  he  was  shot  in  the  fleshy  part  of  the  thigh, 
not  a  dangerous  wound,  but  one  which  caused  him  to 
lose  a  great  deal  of  blood.  As  they  carried  him  to 
the  carriage  which  brought  him.  Monsieur  de  Rhetore, 
who  hastened  to  assist  them,  being  close  beside  him, 
he  said,  aloud :  — 

''This  does  not  prevent  Marie-Gaston  from  being  a 
man  of  honor  and  a  heart  of  gold." 

Then  he  fainted. 

This  duel,  as  you  can  well  believe,  has  made  a  great 
commotion ;  Monsieur  Dorlange  has  been  the  hero  of 
the  hour  for  the  last  two  days;  it  is  impossible  to 
enter  a  single  salon  without  finding  him  the  one  topic 
of  conversation.  I  heard  more,  perhaps,  in  the  salon 
of  Madame  de  Montcornet  than  elsewhere.  She  re- 
ceives, as  you  know,  many  artists  and  men  of  letters, 
and  to  give  you  an  idea  of  the  manner  in  which  your 
friend  is  considered,  I  need  only  stenograph  a  conver- 
sation at  which  I  was  present  in  the  countess's  salon 
last  evening. 

The  chief  talkers  were  Emile  Blondet  of  the 
*'Debats,"  and  Monsieur  Bixiou,  the  caricaturist,  one 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  159 

of  the  best-informed  ferrets  of  Paris.  They  are  both, 
1  think,  acquaintances  of  yours,  but,  at  any  rate,  I 
am  certain  of  your  intimacy  with  Joseph  Bridau,  our 
great  painter,  who  shared  in  the  talk,  for  I  well 
remember  that  he  and  Daniel  d'Arthez  were  the  wit- 
nesses of  your  marriage. 

*'The  first  appearance  of  Dorlange  in  art,"  Joseph 
Bridau  was  saying,  when  I  joined  them,  ''was  fine; 
the  makings  of  a  master  were  already  so  apparent  in 
the  work  he  did  for  his  examinations  that  the  Academy, 
under  pressure  of  opinion,  decided  to  crown  him  -^ 
though  he  laughed  a  good  deal  at  its  programme." 

'*True,"  said  Bixiou,  ''and  that  '  Pandora'  he  ex- 
hibited in  1837,  after  his  return  from  Rome,  is  also  a 
very  remarkable  figure.  But  as  she  won  him,  at  once, 
the  cross  and  any  number  of  commissions  from  the 
government  and  the  municipality,  together  with  scores 
of  flourishing  articles  in  the  newspapers,  I  don*t  see 
how  he  can  rise  any  higher  after  all  that  success." 

"That,"  said  Blondet,  "is  a  regular  Bixiou  opinion." 

"No  doubt;  and  well-founded  it  is.  Do  you  know 
the  man?" 

"No;  he  is  never  seen  anywhere." 

"Exactly;  he  is  a  bear,  but  a  premeditated  bear;  a 
reflecting  and  determined  bear." 

"I  don't  see,"  said  Joseph  Bridau,  "why  this  savage 
inclination  for  solitude  should  be  so  bad  for  an  artist. 
What  does  a  sculptor  gain  by  frequenting  salons 
where  gentlemen  and  ladies  have  taken  to  a  habit  of 
wearing  clothes?  " 

"Well,  in  the  first  place,  a  sculptor  can  amuse  him- 
self in  a  salon ;  and  that  will  keep  him  from  taking 


160  The  Deiouty  of  Arcis. 

up  a  mania,  or  becoming  a  visionary;  besides,  he  sees 
the  world  as  it  is,  and  learns  that  1839  is  not  the 
fifteenth  nor  the  sixteenth  century." 

''Has  Dorlange  any  such  delusions?"  asked  Emile 
Blondet. 

"He?  he  will  talk  to  you  by  the  hour  of  returning 
to  the  life  of  the  great  artists  of  the  middle  ages  with 
the  universality  of  their  studies  and  their  knowledge, 
and  that  frightfully  laborious  life  of  theirs;  which 
may  help  us  to  understand  the  habits  and  ways  of  a 
semi-barbarous  society,  but  can  never  exist  in  ours. 
He  does  not  see,  the  innocent  dreamer,  that  civiliza- 
tion, by  strangely  complicating  all  social  conditions, 
absorbs  for  business,  for  interests,  for  pleasures, 
thrice  as  much  time  as  a  less  advanced  society  re- 
quired for  the  same  purposes.  Look  at  the  savage  in 
his  hut;  he  hasn't  anything  to  do.  Whereas  we,  with 
the  Bourse,  the  opera,  the  newspapers,  parliamentary 
discussions,  salons,  elections,  railways,  the  Cafe  de 
Paris  and  the  National  Guard  —  what  time  have  we,  if 
you  please,  to  go  to  work?  " 

"Beautiful  theory  of  a  do-nothing!  "  cried  Emile 
Blondet,  laughing. 

"No,  my  dear  fellow,  I  am  talking  truth.  The  cur- 
few no  longer  rings  at  nine  o'clock.  Only  last  night 
my  concierge  Ravenouillet  gave  a  party;  and  I  think 
I  made  a  great  mistake  in  not  accepting  the  indirect 
invitation  he  gave  me  to  be  present." 

"Nevertheless,"  said  Joseph  Bridau,  "it  is  certain 
that  if  a  man  does  n't  mingle  in  the  business,  the  inter- 
ests, and  the  pleasures  of  our  epoch,  he  can  make  out 
of  the  time  he  thus  saves  a  pretty  capital.     Indepen- 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  161 

dently  of  his  orders,  Dorlange  has,  I  think,  a  little 
competence ;  so  that  nothing  hinders  him  from  arrang- 
ing his  life  to  suit  himself." 

*'But  you  see  he  goes  to  the  opera;  for  it  was  there 
he  found  his  duel.  Besides,  you  are  all  wrong  in 
representing  him  as  isolated  from  this  contemporane- 
ous life,  for  I  happen  to  know  that  he  is  just  about  to 
harness  himself  to  it  by  the  most  rattling  and  compel- 
ling chains  of  the  social  system  —  I  mean  political 
interests." 

"  Does  he  want  to  be  a  statesman  ?  "  asked  Emile 
Blondet,  sarcastically. 

''Yes,  no  doubt  that's  in  his  famous  programme  of 
universality;  and  you  ought  to  see  the  consistency 
and  perseverance  he  puts  into  that  idea!  Only  last 
year  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  francs  dropped 
into  his  mouth  as  if  from  the  skies,  and  he  instantly 
bought  a  hovel  in  the  rue  Saint-Martin  to  make  him- 
self eligible  for  the  Chamber.  Then  —  another  pretty 
speculation  —  with  the  rest  of  the  money  he  bought 
stock  in  the  '  National,'  where  I  meet  him  every  time 
I  want  to  have  a  laugh  over  the  republican  Utopia. 
He  has  his  flatterers  on  the  staff  of  that  estimable 
newspaper;  they  have  persuaded  him  that  he's  a  born 
orator  and  can  cut  the  finest  figure  in  the  Chamber. 
They  even  talk  of  getting  up  a  candidacy  for  him; 
and  on  some  of  their  enthusiastic  days  they  go  so 
far  as  to  assert  that  he  bears  a  distant  likeness  to 
Danton." 

**  But  this  is  getting  burlesque,"  said  ^fimile  Blondet. 

I  don't  know  if  you  have  ever  remarked,  my  dear 
Monsieur  Gaston,  that  in  men  of  real  talent  there  is 

11 


162  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

always  great  leniency  of  judgment.  In  this,  Joseph 
Bridau  is  pre-eminent. 

''I  think  with  you,"  he  said,  "that  if  Dorlange 
takes  this  step,  and  enters  politics,  he  will  be  lost  to 
art.  But,  after  all,  why  should  he  not  succeed  in  the 
Chamber?  He  expresses  himself  with  great  facility, 
and  seems  to  me  to  have  ideas  at  his  command.  Look 
at  Canalis  when  he  was  made  deputy !  '  What !  a 
poet!*  everybody  cried  out, — which  didn't  prevent 
him  from  making  himself  a  fine  reputation  as  orator, 
and  becoming  a  minister." 

"  But  the  first  question  is  how  to  get  into  the  Cham- 
ber," said  Emile  Bloudet.  "Where  does  Dorlange 
propose  to  stand?" 

"  Why,  naturally,  for  one  of  the  rotten  boroughs 
of  the  '  National.'  I  don't  know  if  it  has  yet  been 
chosen." 

"  General  rule,"  said  the  writer  for  the  "  Debats." 
"  To  obtain  your  election,  even  though  you  may  have 
the  support  of  an  active  and  ardent  party,  you  must 
also  have  a  somewhat  extended  political  notoriety,  or,  at 
any  rate,  some  provincial  backing  of  family  or  fortune. 
Has  Dorlange  any  of  those  elements  of  success  ?  " 

* '  As  for  the  backing  of  a  family,  that  element  is 
particularly  lacking,"  replied  Bixiou;  "in  fact,  in  his 
case,  it  is  conspicuously  absent." 

"  Really?  "  said  Emile  Blondet.  "  Is  he  a  natural 
child?'* 

"  Nothing  could  be  more  natural,  —  rather  and 
mother  unknown.  But  I  believe,  myself,  that  he  can 
be  elected.  It  is  the  ins  and  outs  of  his  political  ideas 
that  will  be  the  wonder." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  163 

*'  He  is  a  republican,  I  suppose,  if  he  is  a  friend  of 
tliose  'National*  gentlemen,  and  resembles  Danton?" 

''  Yes,  of  course  ;  but  be  despises  his  co-religionists, 
declaring  they  are  only  good  for  carrying  a  point,  and 
for  violence  and  bullying.  Provisionally,  he  is  satis- 
fied with  a  monarchy  hedged  in  by  republican  institu- 
tions ;  but  he  insists  that  our  civic  royalty  will  infallibly 
be  lost  through  the  abuse  of  influence,  which  he  roughly 
calls  corruption.  This  will  lead  him  towards  the  lit- 
tle Church  of  the  Left-centre ;  but  there  again  —  for 
there  *s  always  a  but  —  he  finds  only  a  collection  of 
ambitious  minds  and  eunuchs  unconsciously  smoothing 
the  way  to  a  revolution,  which  he,  for  his  part,  sees 
looming  on  the  horizon  with  great  regret,  because,  he 
says,  the  masses  are  too  little  prepared,  and  too  little 
intelligent,  not  to  let  it  slip  through  their  fingers. 
Legitimacy  he  simply  laughs  at ;  he  does  n't  admit  it 
to  be  a  principle  in  any  way.  To  him  it  is  simply  the 
most  fixed  and  consistent  form  of  monarchical  hered- 
ity ;  he  sees  no  other  superiority  in  it  than  that  of  old 
wine  over  new.  But  while  he  is  neither  legitimist,  nor 
conservative,  nor  Left-centre,  and  is  republican  with- 
out wanting  a  republic,  he  proclaims  himself  a  catholic, 
and  sits  astride  the  hobby  of  that  party,  namely,  — 
.liberty  of  education.  But  this  man,  who  wants  free 
education  for  every  one,  is  afraid  of  the  Jesuits ;  and 
he  is  still,  as  in  1829,  uneasy  about  the  encroachments 
of  the  clergy  and  the  Congregation.  Can  any  of  you 
guess  the  great  party  which  he  proposes  to  create  in 
the  Chamber,  and  of  whicli  he  intends  to  be  the  leader? 
That  of  the  righteous  man,  the  impartial  man,  the 
honest  man !    as  if  any   such   thing  could   live   and 


164  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

breathe  in  the  parliamentary  cook-shops ;  and  as  if, 
moreover,  all  opinions,  to  hide  their  ugly  nothingness, 
had  not,  from  time  immemorial,  wrapped  themselves 
in  that  banner." 

' '  Does  he  mean  to  renounce  sculpture  absolutely  ?  " 
asked  Joseph  Bridau. 

"Not  yet;  he  is  just  finishing  the  statue  of  some 
saint,  I  don't  know  which ;  but  he  lets  no  one  see  it, 
and  says  he  does  not  intend  to  send  it  to  the  Exhibition 
this  year  —  he  has  ideas  about  it." 

''  What  ideas?  "  asked  Emile  Blondet. 

''  Oh  !  that  religious  works  ought  not  to  be  delivered 
over  to  the  judgment  of  critics,  or  to  the  gaze  of  a 
public  rotten  with  scepticism ;  they  ought,  he  thinks, 
to  go,  without  passing  through  the  uproar  of  the  world, 
piously  and  modestly  to  the  niches  for  which  they  are 
intended. 

"  Ah  qa!  "  exclaimed  Emile  Blondet,  "  and  it  is  this 
fervent  catholic  who  fights  a  duel !  " 

"  Better  or  worse  than  that.  This  catholic  lives 
with  a  woman  whom  he  brought  back  from  Italy,  —  a 
species  of  Goddess  of  Liberty,  who  serves  him  as 
model  and  housekeeper." 

"  What  a  tongue  that  Bixiou  has;  he  keeps  a  regu- 
lar intelligence  office,"  said  some  of  the  little  group 
as  it  broke  up  at  the  offer  of  tea  from  Madame  de 
Montcornet. 

You  see  from  this,  my  dear  Monsieur  Gaston,  that 
the  political  aspirations  of  Monsieur  Dorlange  are  not 
regarded  seriously  by  his  friends.  I  do  not  doubt  that 
you  will  write  to  him  soon  to  thank  him  for  the  warmth 
with   which   he   defended   you   from    calumny.     That 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  165 

courageous  devotion  has  given  me  a  true  sympathy  for 
him,  and  I  shall  hope  that  you  will  use  the  influence 
of  early  friendship  to  turn  his  mind  from  the  deplora- 
ble path  he  seems  about  to  enter.  I  make  no  judgment 
on  the  other  peculiarities  attributed  to  him  by  Mon- 
sieur Bixiou,  who  has  a  cutting  and  a  flippant  tongue ; 
T  am  more  inclined  to  think,  with  Joseph  Bridau,  that 
such  mistakes  are  venial.  But  a  fault  to  be  forever 
regretted,  according  to  my  ideas,  will  be  that  of  aban- 
doning his  present  career  to  fling  himself  into  the 
maelstrom  of  politics.  You  are  yourself  interested 
in  turning  him  from  this  idea,  if  you  strongly  desire 
to  entrust  that  work  to  his  hands.  Preach  to  him  as 
strongly  as  you  can  the  wisdom  of  abiding  by  his  art. 

On  the  subject  of  the  explanation  I  advised  you  to 
have  with  him,  I  must  tell  you  that  your  task  is  greatly 
simplified.  You  need  not  enter  into  any  of  the  details 
which  would  be  to  you  so  painful.  Madame  de  I'Es- 
torade,  to  whom  I  spoke  of  the  r61e  of  mediator  which 
I  wanted  her  to  play,  accepted  the  part  very  willingly. 
She  feels  confident  of  being  able,  after  half  an  hour's 
conversation,  to  remove  the  painful  feeling  from  your 
friend's  mind,  and  drive  away  the  clouds  between  you. 

While  writing  this  long  letter,  I  have  sent  for  news 
of  his  condition.  He  is  going  on  favorably,  and  the 
physicians  say  that,  barring  all  unforeseen  accidents, 
his  friends  need  have  no  anxiety  as  to  his  state.  It 
seems  he  is  an  object  of  general  interest,  for,  to  use 
the  expression  of  my  valet,  people  are  *' making  cue" 
to  leave  their  names  at  his  door.  It  must  be  added 
that  the  Duke  de  Rhetor^  is  not  liked,  which  may 
partly  account  for  this  sympathy.     The  duke  is  stiff 


166  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

and  haughty,  but  there  is  little  in  him.  What  a  con- 
trast the  brother  is  to  her  who  lives  in  our  tenderest 
memory.  She  was  simple  and  kind,  yet  she  never  de- 
rogated from  her  dignity ;  nothing  equalled  the  lovable 
qualities  of  her  heart  but  the  charms  of  her  mind. 


IV.     THE    COMTESSE   DE    l'eSTOIIADE    TO    MADAME    OCTAVE 
DE   CAMPS. 

Paris,  February,  1839. 

Nothing  could  be  more  judicious  than  what  you 
have  written  me,  my  dear  friend.  It  was  certainly  to 
have  been  expected  that  my  '*  bore  "  would  have  ap- 
proached me  on  the  occasion  of  our  next  meeting. 
His  heroism  gave  him  the  right  to  do  so,  and  polite- 
ness made  it  a  duty.  Under  pain  of  being  thought  un- 
mannerly he  was  bound  to  make  inquiries  as  to  the 
results  of  the  accident  on  my  health  and  that  of  ISTais. 
But  if,  contrary  to  all  these  expectations,  he  did  not 
descend  from  his  cloud,  my  resolution,  under  your 
judicious  advice,  was  taken.  If  the  mountain  did  not 
come  to  me,  I  should  go  to  the  mountain ;  like  Hippo- 
lite  in  the  tale  of  Theramene,  I  would  rush  upon  the 
monster  and  discharge  my  gratitude  upon  him  at  short 
range.  I  have  come  to  think  with  you  that  the  really 
dangerous  side  of  this  foolish  obsession  on  his  part 
is  its  duration  and  the  inevitable  gossip  in  which, 
sooner  or  later,  it  would  involve  me. 

Therefore,  I  not  only  accepted  the  necessity  of 
speaking  to  my  shadow  first,  but  under  pretence  that 
my  husband  wished  to  call  upon  him  and  thank  him  in 
person,  I  determined  to  ask  him  his  name  and  address, 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  167 

and  if  I  found  him  a  suitable  person  I  intended  to  ask 
him  to  dinner  on  the  following  day ;  believing  that  if 
he  had  but  a  shadow  of  common-sense,  he  would,  when 
he  saw  the  manner  in  which  I  live  with  my  husband, 
my  frantic  passion,  as  you  call  it,  for  my  children,  in 
short,  the  whole  atmosphere  of  my  well-ordered  home, 
he  would,  as  I  say,  certainly  see  the  folly  of  persisting 
in  his  present  course.  At  any  rate  half  the  danger  of 
his  pursuit  was  over  if  it  were  carried  on  openly.  If 
I  was  still  to  be  persecuted,  it  would  be  in  my  own 
home,  where  we  are  all,  more  or  less,  exposed  to  such 
annoyances,  which  an  honest  woman  possessing  some 
resources  of  mind  can  always  escape  with  honor. 

Well,  all  these  fine  schemes  and  all  your  excellent 
advice  have  come  to  nothing.  Since  the  accident,  or 
rather  since  the  day  when  my  physician  first  allowed 
me  to  go  out,  nothing,  absolutely  nothing  have  I  seen 
of  my  unknown  lover.  But,  strange  to  say,  although 
his  presence  was  intolerably  annoying,  I  am  conscious 
that  he  still  exercises  a  sort  of  magnetism  over  me. 
Without  seeing  him,  I  feel  him  near  me;  his  eyes 
weigh  upon  me,  though  I  do  not  meet  them.  He  is 
ugly,  but  his  ugliness  has  something  energetic  and 
powerfully  marked,  which  makes  one  remember  him  as 
a  man  of  strong  and  energetic  faculties.  In  fact,  it  is 
impossible  not  to  think  about  him ;  and  now  that  he 
appears  to  have  relieved  me  of  his  presence,  I  am  con- 
scious of  a  void  —  that  sort  of  void  the  ear  feels  when 
a  sharp  and  piercing  noise  which  has  long  annoyed  it 
ceases.  What  I  am  going  to  add  may  seem  to  you 
great  foolishness ;  but  are  we  always  mistress  of  such 
mirages  of  the  imagination? 


168  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

I  have  often  told  you  of  my  arguments  with  Louise 
de  Chaulieu  in  relation  to  the  manner  in  which  women 
ought  to  look  at  life.  I  used  to  tell  her  that  the  passion 
with  which  she  never  ceased  to  pursue  the  ideal  was 
ill- regulated  and  fatal  to  happiness.  To  this  she  an- 
swered:  "You  have  never  loved,  my  dearest;  love 
has  this  rare  phenomenon  about  it:  we  may  live  all  our 
lives  without  ever  meeting  the  being  to  whom  nature 
has  assigned  the  power  of  making  us  happy.  But  if 
the  day  of  splendor  comes  when  that  being  unexpectedly 
awakes  your  heart  from  sleep,  what  will  you  do  then  ?  " 
[See  "  Memoirs  of  Two  Young  Married  Women."] 

The  words  of  those  about  to  die  are  often  prophetic. 
What  if  this  man  were  to  be  the  tardy  serpent  with 
whom  Louise  threatened  me?  That  he  could  ever  be 
really  dangerous  to  me  ;  that  he  could  make  me  fail  in 
my  duty,  that  is  certainly  not  what  I  fear ;  I  am  strong 
against  all  such  extremes.  But  I  did  not,  like  you, 
my  dear  Madame  de  Camps,  marry  a  man  whom  my 
heart  had  chosen.  It  was  only  by  dint  of  patience, 
determination,  and  reason  that  I  was  able  to  build  up 
the  solid  and  serious  attachment  which  binds  me  to 
Monsieur  de  I'Estorade.  Ought  I  not,  therefore,  to  be 
doubly  cautious  lest  anything  distract  me  from  that 
sentiment,  be  it  only  the  diversion  of  my  thoughts  in 
this  annoying  manner,  to  another  man  ? 

I  shall  say  to  you,  as,  Monsieur,  Louis  XIV.'s  brother, 
said  to  his  wife,  to  whom  he  was  in  the  habit  of  show- 
ing what  he  had  written  and  asking  her  to  decipher  it : 
See  into  my  heart  and  mind,  dear  friend,  disperse  the 
mists,  quiet  the  worries,  and  the  flux  and  reflux  of  will 
which  this  affair  stirs  up  in  me.     My  poor  Louise  was 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  169 

mistaken,  was  she  not?  I  am  not  a  woman,  am  I,  on 
whom  the  passion  of  love  could  gain  a  foothold  ?  The 
man  who,  on  some  glorious  day,  will  render  me  happy 
is  my  Armand,  my  Rene,  my  Nais,  three  angels  for 
whom  I  have  hitherto  lived  —  there  can  never  be  for 
me,  I  feel  it  deeply,  another  passion  ! 

V.     THE    COMTESSE    DE    L'eSTORADE    TO     MADAME     OCTAVE 
DE   CAMPS. 

Paris,  March,  1839. 

About  the  year  1820  in  the  course  of  the  same  week 
two  news  (to  use  the  schoolboy  phrase  of  my  son 
Armand)  entered  the  college  of  Tours.  One  had  a 
charming  face,  the  other  would  have  been  thought 
ugly  if  health,  frankness,  and  intelligence  beaming  on 
his  features  had  not  compensated  for  their  irregularity 
and  inelegance. 

Here  you  will  stop  me,  and  ask  whether  I  have 
come  to  the  end  of  my  own  adventure,  that  I  should 
now  be  writing  this  feuilleton-story.  No,  this  tale  is 
really  a  continuation  of  that  adventure,  though  it 
seems  little  like  it ;  so,  give  it  your  best  attention  and 
do  not  interrupt  me  again. 

One  of  these  lads,  the  handsome  one,  was  dreamy, 
contemplative,  and  a  trifle  elegiac;  the  other,  ardent, 
impetuous,  and  always  in  action.  They  were  two 
natures  which  completed  each  other ;  a  priceless  bless- 
ing to  every  friendship  that  is  destined  to  last.  Both 
had  the  same  bar-sinister  on  them  at  their  birth.  The 
dreamer  was  the  natural  son  of  the  unfortunate  Lady 
Brandon.    His  name  was  Marie-Gaston  ;  which,  indeed, 


170  The  De'puty  of  Arcis. 

seems  hardly  an  actual  name.  The  other,  born  of 
wholly  unknown  parents,  was  named  Dorlange,  which 
is  certainly  no  name  at  all.  Dorlange,  Valmon,  Vol- 
mar,  Melcourt,  are  heard  upon  the  stage  and  nowhere 
else ;  already  they  belong  to  a  past  style,  and  will 
soon  rejoin  Alceste,  Arnolphe,  Clitandre,  Damis, 
^raste,  Philinte,  and  Arsinoe. 

Another  reason  why  the  poor  ill-born  lads  should 
cling  together  was  the  cruel  abandonment  to  which 
they  were  consigned.  For  the  seven  years  their 
studies  lasted  there  w^as  not  a  day,  even  during  the 
holidays,  when  the  door  of  their  prison  opened.  Now 
and  then  Marie-Gaston  received  a  visit  from  an  old 
woman  who  had  served  his  mother;  through  her  the 
quarterly  payment  for  his  schooling  was  regularly 
made.  That  of  Dorlange  was  also  made  with  great 
punctuality  through  a  banker  in  Tours.  A  point  to 
be  remarked  is  that  the  price  paid  for  the  schooling  of 
the  latter  was  the  highest  which  the  rules  of  the  estab- 
lishment allowed ;  hence  the  conclusion  that  his  un- 
known parents  were  persons  in  easy  circumstances. 
Among  his  comrades,  Dorlange  attained  to  a  certain 
respect  which,  had  it  been  withheld,  he  would  very 
well  have  known  how  to  enforce  with  his  fists.  But 
under  their  breaths,  his  comrades  remarked  that  he 
was  never  sent  for  to  see  friends  in  the  parlor,  and 
that  outside  the  college  walls  no  one  appeared  to  take 
an  interest  in  him. 

The  two  lads,  who  were  both  destined  to  become 
distinguished  men,  were  poor  scholars ;  though  each 
had  his  own  way  of  studying.  By  the  time  he  was 
fifteen  Marie-Gaston  had  written  a  volume  of  verses, 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  171 

satires,  elegies,  meditations,  not  to  speak  of  two 
tragedies.  Tlie  favorite  studies  of  Dorlange  led  him 
to  steal  logs  of  wood,  out  of  which,  with  his  knife,  he 
carved  madonnas,  grotesque  figures,  fencing-masters, 
saints,  grenadiers  of  the  Old  Guard,  and,  but  this  was 
secretly,  Napoleons. 

In  1827,  their  school-daj^s  ended,  the  two  friends 
left  college  together  and  were  sent  to  Paris.  A  place 
had  been  chosen  for  Dorlange  in  the  atelier  of  the 
sculptor  Bosio,  and  from  that  moment  a  rather  fan- 
tastic course  was  pursued  by  an  unseen  protection  that 
hovered  over  him.  When  he  reached  the  house  in 
Paris  to  which  the  head-master  of  the  school  had  sent 
him,  he  found  a  dainty  little  apartment  prepared  for 
his  reception.  Under  the  glass  shade  of  the  clock  was 
a  large  envelope  addressed  to  him,  so  placed  as  to 
strike  his  eye  the  moment  that  he  entered  the  room. 
In  that  envelope  was  a  note,  written  in  pencil,  contain- 
ing these  words :  — 

"  The  day  after  your  arrival  in  Paris  go  at  eight  in  the 
morning  punctually  to  the  garden  of  the  Luxembourg,  Allde 
de  rObservatoire,  fourth  bench  to  right,  starting  from  the 
gate.     This  order  is  strict.     Do  not  fail  to  obey  it." 

Punctual  to  the  minute,  Dorlange  was  not  long  at 
the  place  of  rendezvous  before  he  was  met  by  a  very 
small  man,  whose  enormous  head,  bearing  an  immense 
shock  of  hair,  together  with  a  pointed  nose,  chin,  and 
crooked  legs  made  him  seem  like  a  being  escaped  from 
one  of  Hoffmann's  tales.  Without  saying  a  word,  for 
to  his  other  physical  advantages  this  weird  messenger 
added  that  of  being  deaf  and  dumb,  he  placed  in  the 


172  The  Dejputy  of  Arcis. 

young  man's  hand  a  letter  and  a  purse.  The  letter 
said  that  the  family  of  Dorlange  were  glad  to  see  that 
he  wished  to  devote  himself  to  art.  They  urged  him 
to  work  bravely  and  to  profit  by  the  instructions  of  the 
great  master  under  whose  direction  he  was  placed. 
They  hoped  he  would  live  virtuously ;  and,  in  any 
case,  an  eye  would  be  kept  upon  his  conduct.  There 
was  no  desire,  the  letter  went  on  to  say,  that  he  should 
be  deprived  of  the  respectable  amusements  of  his  age. 
For  his  needs  and  for  his  pleasures,  he  might  count 
upon  the  sum  of  six  hundred  and  fifty  francs  every 
three  months,  which  would  be  given  to  him  in  the 
same  place  by  the  same  man ;  but  he  was  expressly 
forbidden  to  follow  the  messenger  after  he  had  ful- 
filled his  commission ;  if  this  injunction  were  directly 
or  indirectly  disobeyed,  the  punishment  would  be 
severe ;  it  would  be  nothing  less  than  the  withdrawal 
of  the  stipend  and,  possibly,  total  abandonment. 

Do  you  remember,  ray  dear  Madame  de  Camps, 
that  in  1831  you  and  I  went  together  to  the  Beaux- 
Arts  to  see  the  exhibition  of  works  which  were  com- 
peting for  the  Grand  Prix  in  sculpture?  The  subject 
given  out  for  competition  was  Niobe  weeping  for  her 
children.  Do  you  also  remember  my  indignation  at 
one  of  the  competing  works  around  which  the  crowd 
was  so  compact  that  we  could  scarcely  approach  it? 
The  insolent  youth  had  dared  to  turn  that  sacred  sub- 
ject into  jest !  His  Niobe  was  infinitely  touching  in 
her  beauty  and  grief,  but  to  represent  her  children,  as 
he  did,  by  monkeys  squirming  on  the  ground  in  the 
most  varied  and  grotesque  attitudes,  what  a  deplor- 
able abuse  of  talent !  — 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  173 

You  tried  in  vain  to  make  me  see  that  the  monkej^s 
were  enchantiugly  graceful  and  clever,  and  that  a 
mother's  blind  idolatry  could  not  be  more  ingeniously 
ridiculed ;  I  held  to  my  opinion  that  the  conception 
was  monstrous,  and  the  indignation  of  the  old  acad- 
emicians who  demanded  the  expulsion  of  this  intolerable 
work,  seemed  to  me  most  justifiable.  But  the  Acad- 
emy, instigated  by  the  public  and  by  the  newspapers, 
which  talked  of  opening  a  subscription  to  send  the 
young  sculptor  to  Rome,  were  not  of  my  opinion  and 
that  of  their  older  members.  The  extreme  beauty  of 
the  Niobe  atoned  for  all  the  rest  and  the  defamer  of 
mothers  saw  his  work  crowned,  in  spite  of  an  admoni- 
tion given  to  him  by  the  venerable  secretary  on  the 
day  of  the  distribution  of  the  prizes.  But,  poor  fel- 
low !  I  excuse  him,  for  I  now  learn  that  he  never 
knew  his  mother.  It  was  Dorlange,  the  poor  aban- 
doned child  at  Tours,  the  friend  of  Marie-Gaston. 

From  1827  to  1831  the  two  friends  were  insepara- 
ble. Dorlange,  regularly  supplied  with  means,  was 
a  sort  of  Marquis  d'Aligre;  Gaston,  on  the  contrary, 
was  reduced  to  his  own  resources  for  a  living,  and 
would  have  lived  a  life  of  extreme  poverty  had  it  not 
been  for  his  friend.  But  where  friends  love  each 
other — and  the  situation  is  more  rare  than  people 
imagine  —  all  on  one  side  and  nothing  on  the  other  is 
a  determining  cause  for  association.  So,  without  any 
reckoning  between  them,  our  two  pigeons  held  in 
common  their  purse,  their  earnings,  their  pains,  pleas- 
ures, hopes,  in  fact,  they  held  all  things  in  common, 
and  lived  but  one  life  between  the  two.  This  state  of 
things  lasted  till  Dorlange  had  won  the  Grand  Prix, 


174  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

and  started  for  Rome.  Henceforth  community  of 
interests  was  no  longer  possible.  But  Dorlange,  still 
receiving  an  ample  income  through  his  mysterious 
dwarf,  bethought  him  of  making  over  to  Gaston  the 
fifteen  hundred  francs  paid  to  him  by  the  government 
for  the  "prix  de  Rome."  But  a  good  heart  in  receiv- 
ing is  more  rare  than  the  good  heart  that  gives.  His 
mind  being  ulcerated  by  constant  misfortune  Marie- 
Gaston  refused,  peremptorily,  what  pride  insisted  on 
calling  alms.  Work,  he  said,  had  been  provided  for 
him  by  Daniel  d'Arthez,  one  of  our  greatest  writers, 
and  the  payment  for  that,  added  to  his  own  small 
means,  sufficed  him.  This  proud  rejection,  not  prop- 
erly understood  by  Dorlange,  produced  a  slight  cool- 
ness between  the  two  friends;  nevertheless,  until  the 
year  1833,  their  intimacy  was  maintained  by  a  constant 
exchange  of  letters.  But  here,  on  Marie-Gaston's 
side,  perfect  confidence  ceased,  after  a  time,  to  exist. 
He  was  hiding  something;  his  proud  determination  to 
depend  wholly  on  himself  was  a  sad  mistake.  Each 
day  brought  him  nearer  to  penury.  At  last,  staking 
all  upon  one  throw,  he  imprudently  involved  himself 
in  journalism.  Assuming  all  the  risks  of  an  enter- 
prise which  amounted  to  thirty  thousand  francs,  a 
stroke  of  ill-fortune  left  him  nothing  to  look  forward 
to  but  a  debtor's  prison,  which  yawned  before  him. 

It  was  at  this  moment  that  his  meeting  with  Louise 
de  Chaulieu  occurred.  During  the  nine  months  that 
preceded  their  marriage,  Marie-Gaston's  letters  to 
his  friend  became  fewer  and  far-between.  Dorlange 
ought  surely  to  have  been  the  first  to  know  of  this 
change  in  the  life  of  his  friend,  but  not  one  word  of 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  175 

it  was  confided  to  him.  Tiiis  was  exacted  by  the  high 
aud  mighty  lady  of  Gaston's  love,  Louise  de  Chaulieu, 
Baronne  de  Macumer. 

When  the  time  for  the  marriage  came,  Madame  de 
Macumer  pushed  this  mania  for  secrecy  to  extremes. 
I,  her  nearest  and  dearest  friend,  was  scarcely  in- 
formed of  the  event,  and  no  one  was  admitted  to 
the  ceremony  except  the  witnesses  required  by  law. 
Dorlange  was  still  absent.  The  correspondence  be- 
tween them  ceased,  and  if  Marie-Gaston  had  entered 
the  convent  of  La  Trappe,  he  could  not  have  been 
more  completely  lost  to  his  friend. 

When  Dorlange  returned  from  Rome  in  1836,  the 
sequestration  of  Marie-Gaston's  person  and  affection 
was  more  than  ever  close  and  inexorable.  Dorlange 
had  too  much  self-respect  to  endeavor  to  pass  the 
barriers  thus  opposed  to  him,  and  the  old  friends 
not  only  never  saw  each  other,  but  no  communication 
passed  between  them. 

But  when  the  news  of  Madame  Marie-Gaston's  death 
reached  him  Dorlange  forgot  all  and  hastened  to  Villa 
d'Avray  to  comfort  his  friend.  Useless  eagerness! 
Two  hours  after  that  sad  funeral  was  over,  Marie- 
Gaston,  without  a  thought  for  his  friends  or  for  a 
sister-in-law  and  two  nephews  who  were  dependent  on 
him,  flung  himself  into  a  post-chaise  and  started  for 
Italy.  Dorlange  felt  that  this  egotism  of  sorrow  filled 
the  measure  of  the  wrong  already  done  to  him ;  and 
he  endeavoured  to  efface  from  his  heart  even  the  recol- 
lection of  a  friendship  which  sympathy  under  misfor 
time  could  not  recall. 

My  husband  and  I  loved  Louise  de  Chaulieu  too  ten- 


176  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

derly  not  to  continue  our  affection  for  the  man  who 
had  been  so  much  to  her.  Before  leaving  France, 
Marie-Gaston  had  requested  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  to 
take  charge  of  his  affairs,  and  later  he  sent  him  a 
power-of -attorney  to  enable  him  to  do  so  properly. 

Some  weeks  ago  his  grief,  still  living  and  active, 
suggested  to  him  a  singular  idea.  In  the  midst  of  the 
beautiful  park  at  Ville  d'Avray  is  a  little  lake,  with 
an  island  upon  it  which  Louise  dearly  loved.  To  that 
island,  a  shady  calm  retreat,  Marie-Gaston  wished  to 
remove  the  body  of  his  wife,  after  building  a  mauso- 
leum of  Carrara  marble  to  receive  it.  He  wrote  to  us 
to  communicate  this  idea,  and,  remembering  Dorlange 
in  this  connection,  he  requested  my  husband  to  see  him 
and  ask  him  to  undertake  the  work.  At  first  Dorlange 
feigned  not  to  remember  even  the  name  of  Marie- 
Gaston,  and  he  made  some  civil  pretext  to  decline  the 
commission.  But  see  and  admire  the  consistency  of 
such  determinations  when  people  love  each  other! 
That  very  evening,  being  at  the  opera,  he  heard  the 
Due  de  Rhetore  speak  insultingly  of  his  former  friend, 
and  he  vehemently  resented  the  duke's  words.  A  duel 
followed  in  which  he  was  wounded  ;  the  news  of  this 
affair  has  probably  already  reached  you.  So  here  is  a 
man  facing  death  at  night  for  a  friend  whose  very 
name  he  pretended  not  to  know  in  the  morning ! 

You  will  ask,  my  dear  Madame  de  Camps,  what  tliis 
long  tale  has  to  do  with  my  own  ridiculous  adventure. 
That  is  what  I  would  tell  you  now  if  my  letter  were 
not  so  immoderately  long.  I  told  you  my  tale  would 
prove  to  be  a  feuilleton-story,  and  I  think  the  moment 
has  come  to  make  the  customary  break  in  it.     I  hope 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  177 

I  have  sufficiently  exalted  your  curiosity  to  have  the 
right  not  to  satisfy  it.  To  be  concluded,  therefore, 
whether  you  like  it  or  not,  in  the  following  number. 


VI.     THE   COMTESSE    DE    L  ESTORADE    TO    MADAME  OCTAVE 
DE    CAMPS. 

Paris,  March,  1839. 

The  elements  of  the  long  biographical  dissertation 
I  lately  sent  you,  my  dear  friend,  were  taken  chiefly 
from  a  recent  letter  from  Monsieur  Marie-Gaston.  On 
learning  of  the  brave  devotion  shown  in  his  defence 
his  first  impulse  was  to  rush  to  Paris  and  press  the 
hand  of  the  friend  who  avenged  himself  thus  nobly 
for  neglect  and  forgetfulness.  Unfortunately  the  even- 
ing before  his  departure  he  met  with  a  dangerous  fall 
at  Savarezza,  one  of  the  outlying  quarries  of  Carrara, 
and  dislocated  his  ankle.  Being  obliged  to  postpone 
his  journey,  he  wrote  to  Monsieur  Dorlauge  to  express 
his  gratitude ;  and,  by  the  same  courier,  he  sent  me  a 
voluminous  letter,  relating  the  whole  past  of  their  life- 
long friendship  and  asking  me  to  see  Monsieur  Dor- 
lange  and  be  the  mediator  between  them.  He  was  not 
satisfied  with  the  expression  of  his  warm  gratitude,  he 
wanted  also  to  show  him  that  in  spite  of  contrary 
appearances,  he  had  never  ceased  to  deserve  the  affec- 
tion of  his  early  friend. 

On  receiving  Monsieur  Gaston's  letter,  my  first  idea 
was  to  write  to  the  sculptor  and  ask  him  to  come  and 
see  me,  but  finding  that  he  was  not  entirely  recovered 
from  his  wound,  I  went,  accompanied  by  my  husband 
and  Nais,  to  the  artist's  studio,  which  we  found  in  a 

12 


178  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

pleasant  little  house  in  the  rue  de  I'Ouest,  behind  the 
garden  of  the  Luxembourg,  one  of  the  most  retired 
quarters  of  Paris.  We  were  received  in  the  vestibule 
by  a  woman  about  whom  M.  de  FEstorade  had  already 
said  a  word  to  me.  It  appears  that  the  laureat  of 
Rome  did  not  leave  Italy  without  bringing  away  with 
him  an  agreeable  souvenir  in  the  form  of  a  bourgeoise 
Galatea,  half  housekeeper,  half  model ;  about  whom 
certain  indiscreet  rumors  are  current.  But  let  me 
hasten  to  say  that  there  was  absolutely  nothing  in  her 
appearance  or  manner  to  lead  me  to  credit  them. 
In  fact,  there  was  something  cold  and  proud  and 
almost  savage  about  her,  which  is,  they  tell  me  a 
strong  characteristic  of  the  Trausteverine  peasant- 
w^omen.  When  she  announced  our  names  Monsieur 
Dorlange  was  standing  in  a  rather  picturesque  working 
costume  with  his  back  to  us,  and  I  noticed  that  he 
hastily  drew  an  ample  curtain  before  the  statue  on 
which  he  was  engaged. 

At  the  moment  when  he  turned  round,  and  before  I 
had  time  to  look  at  him,  imagine  my  astonishment 
when  Nais  ran  forward  and,  with  the  artlessness  of  a 
child,  flung  her  arms  about  his  neck  crying  out :  — 
"  Are  !  here  is  my  monsieur  who  saved  me  !  " 
What!  tlie  monsieur  who  saved  her?  Then  Mon- 
sieur Dorlange  must  be  the  famous  Unknown? — Yes, 
my  dear  friend,  I  now  recognized  him.  Chance,  that 
cleverest  of  romance-makers,  willed  that  Monsieur 
Dorlange  and  my  bore  were  one.  Happily,  my  husband 
had  launched  into  the  expression  of  his  feelings  as  a 
grateful  father;  I  thus  had  time  to  recover  myself^ 
and  before  it  became  my  turn  to  say  a  word,  I  had 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  179 

installed  upon  my  face  what  yon  are  pleased  to  call 
my  grand  I'Estorade  air ;  under  which,  as  you  know, 
I  mark  twenty-five  degrees  below  zero,  and  can  freeze 
the  words  on  the  lips  of  any  presuming  person. 

As  for  Monsieur  Dorlange,  he  seemed  to  me  less 
troubled  than  surprised  by  the  meeting.  Then,  as  if 
he  thought  we  kept  him  too  long  on  the  topic  of  our 
gratitude,  he  abruptly  changed  the  subject. 

"  Madame,"  he  said  to  me,  ''  since  we  are,  as  it 
seems,  more  acquainted  than  we  thought,  may  I  dare 
to  gratify  my  curiosity?"  — 

I  fancied  I  saw  the  claw  of  a  cat  preparing  to  play 
with  its  mouse,  so  I  answered,  coldly :  — 

''Artists,  I  am  told,  are  often  indiscreet  in  their 
curiosity." 

I  put  a  well-marked  stiffness  into  my  manner  which 
completed  the  meaning  of  the  words.  I  could  not  see 
that  it  baffled  him. 

''  I  hope,"  he  replied,  ''  that  my  question  is  not  of 
that  kind.     I  only  desire  to  ask  if  you  have  a  sister." 

''No,  monsieur,"  I  replied,  "I  have  no  sister  — 
none,  at  least,  that  I  know  of,"  I  added,  jestingly. 

"  I  thought  it  not  unlikely,  however,"  continued 
Monsieur  Dorlange,  in  the  most  natural  manner  pos- 
sible ;  "  for  the  family  in  which  I  have  met  a  lady  bear- 
ing the  strongest  resemblance  to  you  is  surrounded  by 
a  certain  mysterious  atmosphere  which  renders  all  sup- 
positions possible." 

"Is  there  any  indiscretion  in  asking  the  name  of 
that  family?" 

''Not  the  least;  they  are  people  whom  you  must 
have   known  in  Paris  in  1829-1830.     They  lived  in 


180  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

great  state  and  gave  fine  parties.     I  myself  met  them 
in  Italy." 

"But  their  name?  "  I  said. 

"De  Lanty,"  he  replied,  without  embarrassment  or 
hesitation. 

And,  in  fact,  my  dear  Madame  de  Camps,  a  family 
of  that  name  did  live  in  Paris  about  that  time,  and 
you  probably  remember,  as  I  do,  that  many  strange 
stories  were  told  about  them.  As  Monsieur  Dorlange 
answered  my  question  he  turned  back  towards  his 
veiled  statue. 

•'The  sister  whom  you  have  not,  madame,"  he  said 
to  me  abruptly,  '^1  shall  permit  myself  to  give  you, 
and  I  venture  to  hope  that  you  will  see  a  certain  family 
likeness  in  her." 

So  saying,  he  removed  the  cloth  that  concealed  his 
work,  and  there  I  stood,  under  the  form  of  a  saint, 
with  a  halo  round  my  head.  Could  I  be  angry  at  the 
liberty  thus  taken? 

My  husband  and  Nais  gave  a  cry  of  admiration  at 
the  wonderful  likeness  they  had  before  their  eyes. 
As  for  Monsieur  Dorlange,  he  at  once  explained  the 
cause  of  his  scenic  effect. 

"This  statue,"  he  said,  "is  a  Saint-Ursula,  ordered 
by  a  convent  in  the  provinces.  Under  circumstances 
which  it  would  take  too  long  to  relate,  the  type  of 
this  saint,  the  person  whom  I  mentioned  just  now, 
was  firmly  fixed  in  my  memory.  I  should  vainly  have 
attempted  to  create  by  my  imagination  another  type 
for  that  saint;  it  could  not  have  been  so  completely 
the  expression  of  my  thought.  I  therefore  began  to 
model  this  figure  which  you  see  from  memory,  when 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  1 81 

^  one  day,  madame,  at  Saint-Thomas  d' Aquin,  I  saw  you, 
and  I  had  the  superstition  to  believe  that  you  were 
sent  to  me  by  Providence.  After  that,  I  worked  from 
you  only,  and  as  I  did  not  feel  at  liberty  to  ask  you  to 
come  to  my  studio,  the  best  I  could  do  was  to  study 
you  when  we  met,  and  I  multiplied  my  chances  of 
doing  so.  I  carefully  avoided  knowing  your  name 
and  social  position;  for  I  feared  to  bring  you  down 
from  the  ideal  and  materialize  you." 

'*0h!  I  have  often  seen  you  following  us,"  said 
Nais,  with  her  clever  little  air. 

How  little  we  know  children,  and  their  turn  for 
observation!  As  for  my  husband,  it  seemed  to  me 
that  he  ought  to  have  pricked  up  his  ears  at  this  tale 
of  the  daring  manner  in  which  his  wife  had  been  used 
as  a  model.  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  is  certainly  no 
fool;  in  all  social  matters  he  has  the  highest  sense  of 
conventional  propriety,  and  as  for  jealousy,  I  think  if 
I  gave  him  the  slightest  occasion  he  would  show  him- 
self ridiculously  jealous.  But  now,  the  sight  of  his 
"beautiful  Renee,"  as  he  calls  me,  done  into  white 
marble  in  the  form  of  a  saint,  had  evidently  cast  him 
into  a  state  of  admiring  ecstasy.  He,  wuth  Nais, 
were  taking  an  inventory  to  prove  the  fidelity  of  the 
likeness  —  yes,  it  was  really  my  attitude,  really  my 
eyes,  really  my  mouth,  really  those  two  little  dimples 
in  my  cheeks! 

1  felt  it  my  duty  to  take  up  the  role  that  Monsieur 
de  I'Estorade  laid  aside,  so  I  said,  very  gravely,  to 
the  presuming  artist:  — 

'*Do  you  not  think,  monsieur,  that  to  appropriate 
without  permission,  or  —  not  to  mince  my  words  — 


182  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

steal  a  person's  likeness,  may  seem  a  very  strange 
proceeding  ?  " 

"For  that  reason,  madame,"he  replied,  in  a  respect- 
ful tone,  "I  was  fully  determined  to  abide  by  your 
wishes  in  the  matter.  Although  my  statue  is  fated  to 
be  buried  in  the  oratory  of  a  distant  convent,  I  should 
not  have  sent  it  to  its  destination  without  obtaining 
your  permission  to  do  so.  I  could  have  known  your 
name  whenever  I  wished;  I  already  knew  your  address; 
and  I  intended,  when  the  time  came,  to  confess  the 
liberty  I  had  taken,  and  ask  you  to  visit  my  studio. 
I  should  then  have  said  what  I  say  now:  if  the  like- 
ness displeases  you  I  can,  with  a  few  strokes  of  my 
chisel,  so  change  it  as  to  make  it  unrecognizable." 

My  husband,  who  apparently  thought  the  likeness 
not  sufficiently  close,  turned,  at  this  moment,  to  Mon- 
sieur Dorlange,  and  said,  with  a  delighted  air:  — 

"Do  you  not  think,  monsieur,  that  Madame  de 
I'Estorade's  nose  is  rather  more  delicate  than  you 
have  made  it?  " 

All  this  unexpectedness  so  upset  me  that  I  felt  un- 
fitted to  intervene  on  behalf  of  Monsieur  Marie-Gaston, 
and  I  should,  I  believe,  have  pleaded  his  cause  very 
ill  if  Monsieur  Dorlange  had  not  stopped  me  at  the 
first  words  I  said  about  it. 

"I  know,  madame,"  he  said,  "all  that  you  can  pos- 
sibly tell  me  about  my  unfaithful  friend.  1  do  not 
forgive,  but  I  forget  my  wrong.  Things  having  so 
come  about  that  I  have  nearly  lost  my  life  for  his 
sake,  it  would  certainly  be  very  illogical  to  keep  a 
grudge  against  him.  Still,  as  regards  that  mausoleum 
at  Ville  d'Avray,  nothing  would  induce  me  to  under- 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  183 

take  it.  I  have  already  mentioned  to  Monsieur  de 
I'Estorade  one  hindrance  that  is  daily  growing  more 
imperative;  but  besides  that,  I  think  it  a  great  pity 
that  ^larie-Gaston  should  thus  ruminate  on  his  grief; 
and  I  have  written  to  tell  him  so.  He  ought  to  be 
more  of  a  man,  and  find  in  study  and  in  work  the  con- 
solations we  can  always  find  there." 

The  object  of  our  visit  being  thus  disposed  of,  I 
saw  no  hope  of  getting  to  the  bottom  of  the  other  mys- 
tery it  had  opened,  so  I  rose  to  take  leave,  and  as  I 
did  so  Monsieur  Dorlange  said  to  me:  — 

''May  I  hope  that  you  will  not  exact  the  injury  I 
spoke  of  to  my  statue?  " 

"It  is  for  my  husband  and  not  for  me  to  reply  to 
that  question,"  I  said;  ''however,  we  can  talk  of  it 
later,  for  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  hopes  that  you  will 
give  us  the  honor  of  a  visit." 

Monsieur  bowed  in  respectful  acquiescence,  and  we 
came  away,  — I,  in  great  ill -humor;  I  was  angry  with 
NaTs,  and  also  with  my  husband,  and  felt  much  in- 
clined to  make  him  a  scene,  which  he  would  certainly 
not  have  understood. 

Now  what  do  you  think  of  all  this?  Is  the  man  a 
clever  swindler,  who  invented  that  fable  for  some  pur- 
pose, or  is  he  really  an  artist,  who  took  me  in  all  sim- 
plicity of  soul  for  the  living  realization  of  his  idea? 
That  is  what  I  intend  to  find  out  in  the  course  of  a  few 
days,  for  now  I  am  committed  to  your  programme, 
and  to-morrow  Monsieur  and  Madame  de  I'Estorade 
will  have  the  honor  of  inviting  Monsieur  Dorlange  to 
dinner. 


184  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 


TII.       THE   COMTESSE   DE    l'eSTORADE    TO   MADAME 
OCTAVE    DE    CAMPS. 

Paris,  March,  1839. 

My  DEAR  FRIEND,  —  MoDsienr  Dorlange  dined  with  us 
yesterday.  My  intention  was  to  invite  him  alone  to  a 
family  dinner,  so  as  to  have  him  more  completely  under 
nay  eye,  and  put  him  to  the  question  at  my  ease.  But 
Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  to  whom  I  had  not  explained 
my  charitable  motives,  showed  me  that  such  an  invita- 
tion might  wound  the  sensibilities  of  our  guest;  it 
might  seem  to  him  that  the  Comte  de  I'Estorade 
thought  the  sculptor  Dorlange  unfitted  for  the  society 
of  his  friends. 

*'  We  can't,"  said  my  husband  gayly,  "  treat  him  like 
the  sons  of  our  farmers  who  come  here  with  the  epaulet 
of  a  lieutenant  on  their  shoulder,  and  whom  we  invite 
with  closed  doors  because  we  can*t  send  them  to  the 
servants*  hall." 

We  therefore  invited  to  meet  him  Monsieur  Joseph 
Bridau,  the  painter,  the  Chevalier  d'Espard,  Monsieur 
and  Madame  de  la  Bastie  (formerly,  you  remember. 
Mademoiselle  Modeste  Mignon)  and  the  Marquis  de 
Ronquerolles.  When  my  husband  invited  the  latter, 
he  asked  him  if  he  had  any  objection  to  meeting  the 
adversary  of  the  Due  de  Rhetore. 

"  So  far  from  objecting,"  replied  Monsieur  de  Ron- 
querolles, ''  I  am  glad  of  the  opportunity  to  meet  a  man 
of  talent,  who  in  the  affair  you  speak  of  behaved  ad- 
mirably." And  he  added,  after  my  husband  had  told 
him  of  our  great  obligation  to   Monsieur   Dorlange, 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  186 

"  Then  he  is  a  true  hero,  your  sculptor !  if  he  goes  on 
this  way,  we  can't  hold  a  candle  to  him." 

In  his  studio,  with  a  bare  throat  leaving  his  head, 
which  is  rather  too  large  for  his  body,  free,  and  dressed 
in  a  sort  of  Oriental  costume,  Monsieur  Dorlange  looked 
to  me  a  great  deal  better  than  he  does  in  regular  even- 
ing dress.  Though  I  must  say  that  when  he  grows 
animated  in  speaking  his  face  lights  up,  a  sort  of  a 
magnetic  essence  flows  from  his  eyes  which  I  had 
already  noticed  in  our  preceding  encounters.  Madame 
de  la  Bastie  was  as  much  struck  as  I  was  by  this 
peculiarity. 

I  don't  know  if  I  told  you  that  the  ambition  of  Mon- 
sieur Dorlange  is  to  be  returned  to  the  Chamber  at  the 
coming  elections.  This  was  the  reason  he  gave  for 
declining  Monsieur  Gaston's  commission.  What  Mon- 
sieur de  I'Estorade  and  I  thought,  at  first,  to  be  a 
mere  excuse  was  an  actual  reason.  At  table  when 
Monsieur  Joseph  Bridau  asked  him  point-blank  what 
belief  was  to  be  given  to  the  report  of  his  parliamen- 
tary intentions,  Monsieur  Dorlange  formally  announced 
them ;  from  that  moment,  throughout  the  dinner,  the 
talk  was  exclusively  on  politics. 

When  it  came  to  topics  foreign  to  his  studies,  I 
expected  to  find  our  artist,  if  not  a  novice,  at  least 
very  slightly  informed.  Not  at  all.  On  men,  on 
things,  on  the  past  as  on  the  future  of  parties,  he  had 
very  clear  and  really  novel  views,  which  were  evi- 
dently not  borrowed  from  the  newspapers ;  and  he  put 
them  forth  in  lively,  easy,  and  elegant  language ;  so 
that  after  his  departure  Monsieur  de  Ronquerolles  and 
Monsieur  de  TEstorade  declared  themselves  positively 


186  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

surprised  at  the  strong  and  powerful  political  attitude 
he  had  taken.  This  admission  was  all  the  more  re- 
markable because,  as  you  know,  the  two  gentlemen 
are  zealous  conservatives,  whereas  Monsieur  Dorlange 
inclines  in  a  marked  degree  to  democratic  principles. 

This  unexpected  superiority  in  my  problematical 
follower  reassured  me  not  a  little  ;  still,  I  was  resolved 
to  get  to  the  bottom  of  the  situation,  and  therefore, 
after  dinner  I  drew  him  into  one  of  those  tete-a-tetes 
which  the  mistress  of  a  house  can  always  bring 
about. 

After  talking  awhile  about  Monsieur  Marie-Gaston, 
our  mutual  friend,  the  enthusiasms  of  my  dear  Louise 
and  my  efforts  to  moderate  them,  I  asked  him  how 
soon  he  intended  to  send  his  Saint-Ursula  to  her 
destination. 

"  Everything  is  ready  for  her  departure,"  he  replied^ 
"but  I  want  your  exeat,  madame;  will  you  kindly  tell 
me  if  you  desire  me  to  change  her  expression?" 

"  One  question  in  the  first  place,"  I  replied  :  "  Will 
your  work  suffer  by  such  a  change,  supposing  that  I 
desire  it?  " 

'*  Probably.  If  you  cut  the  wings  of  a  bird  you 
hinder  its  flight." 

"Another  question;  Is  it  I,  or  the  other  person 
whom  the  statue  best  represents  ?  " 

"You,  madame;  that  goes  without  saying,  for  you 
are  the  present,  she  the  past." 

"  But,  to  desert  the.  past  for  the  present  is  a  bad 
thing  and  goes  by  a  bad  name,  monsieur  ;  and  yet  you 
proclaim  it  with  a  very  easy  air." 

"  True,"  said  Monsieur  Dorlange,  laughing,  "  but 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  187 

art   is   ferocious ;  wherever   it   sees    material    for   its 
creations,  it  pounces  upon  it  desperately." 

''Art,"  I  replied,  "is  a  great  word  under  which  a 
multitude  of  things  shelter  themselves.  The  other  day 
you  told  me  that  circumstances,  too  long  to  relate  at 
that  moment,  had  contributed  to  fix  the  image  of  which 
I  was  the  reflection  in  your  mind,  where  it  has  left  a 
vivid  memory;  was  not  that  enough  to  excite  my 
curiosity  ?  " 

''  It  was  true,  madame,  that  time  did  not  allow  of 
my  making  an  explanation  of  those  circumstances; 
but,  in  any  case,  having  the  honor  of  speaking  to  you 
for  the  first  time,  it  would  have  been  strange,  would 
it  not,  had  I  ventured  to  make  you  any  confidences?'* 

''  Well,  but  now?  "  I  said,  boldly. 

''Now,  unless  I  receive  more  express  encourage- 
ment, I  am  still  unable  to  suppose  that  anything  in 
my  past  can  interest  you." 

"  Why  not?     Some  acquaintances  ripen  fast.     Your^ 
devotion   to   my   Nais   has   advanced   our    friendship 
rapidly.     Besides,"  I  added,  with  affected  levity,  "  I 
am  passionately  fond  of  stories." 

"  But  mine  has  no  conclusion  to  it ;  it  is  an  enigma 
even  to  myself." 

"  All  the  better;  perhaps  between  us  we  might  find 
the  key  to  it." 

Monsieur  Dorlange  appeared  to  take  counsel  with 
himself ;  then,  after  a  short  pause  he  said  :  — 

"  It  is  true  that  women  are  admirably  fitted  to  seize 
the  lighter  shades  of  meaning  in  acts  and  sentiments 
which  we  men  are  unable  to  decipher.  But  this  confi- 
dence does  not  concern  myself  alone ;  I  should  have 


188  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

to  request  that  it  remain  absolutely  between  ourselves, 
not  even  excepting  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  from  this 
restriction.  A  secret  is  never  safe  beyond  the  person 
who  confides  it,  and  the  person  who  hears  it." 

I  was  much  puzzled,  as  you  can  well  suppose,  about 
what  might  follow ;  still,  continuing  my  explorations, 
I  replied  :  — 

"  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  is  so  little  in  the  habit  of 
hearing  everything  from  me,  that  he  never  even  read 
a  line  of  my  correspondence  with  Madame  Marie- 
Gaston.'* 

Until  then.  Monsieur  Dorlange  had  stood  before  the 
fireplace,  at  one  corner  of  which  I  was  seated ;  but 
he  now  took  a  chair  beside  me  and  said,  by  way  of 
preamble :  — 

"  I  mentioned  to  you,  madame,  the  family  of 
Lanty  — " 

At  that  instant  —  provoking  as  rain  in  the  midst  of 
a  picnic  —  Madame  de  la  Bastie  came  up  to  ask  me  if 
I  had  been  to  see  Nathan's  last  drama.  Monsieur 
Dorlange  was  forced  to  give  up  his  seat  beside  me, 
and  no  further  opportunity  for  renewing  the  conversa- 
tion occurred  during  the  evening. 

I  have  really,  as  you  see  now,  no  light  upon  the 
matter,  and  yet  when  I  recall  the  whole  manner  and 
behavior  of  Monsieur  Dorlange,  whom  I  studied  care- 
fully, my  opinion  inclines  to  his  perfect  innocence. 
Nothing  proves  that  the  love  I  suspected  plays  any 
part  in  this  curious  affair ;  and  I  will  allow  you  to 
think  that  I  and  my  terrors,  with  which  I  tormented 
you,  were  terribly  absurd,  —  in  short,  that  I  have 
played  the  part  of  Belise  in  the  Femmes  Savantes, 


The  Defuty  of  Arcis,  189 

who  fancies  that  every  man  she  sees  is  fatally  in  love 
with  her. 

I  therefore  cheerfully  abandon  that  stupid  conclu- 
sion. Lover  or  not,  Monsieur  Dorlange  is  a  man  of 
high  character,  with  rare  distinction  of  mind ;  and  if, 
as  I  believe  now,  he  has  no  misplaced  pretensions,  it  is 
an  honor  and  pleasure  to  count  him  among  our  friends. 
Nais  is  enchanted  with  her  preserver.  After  he  left  us 
that  evening,  she  said  to  me,  with  an  amusing  little  air 
of  approbation,  — 

'*  Mamma,  how  well  Monsieur  Dorlange  talks." 

Apropos  of  Na'is,  here  is  one  of  her  remarks :  — 

'*  When  he  stopped  the  horses,  mamma,  and  you 
did  not  seem  to  notice  him,  I  thought  he  was  only  a 
man." 

"  How  do  you  mean,  —  only  a  man?  " 

'*Well,  yes!  one  of  those  persons  to  whom  one 
pays  no  attention.  But,  oh !  I  was  so  glad  when  I 
found  out  he  was  a  monsieur.  Did  n't  you  hear  me  cry 
out,  *  Ah  !  you  are  the  monsieur  who  saved  me  '  ?  " 

Though  her  innocence  is  perfect,  there  was  such 
pride  and  vanity  in  this  little  speech  that  I  gave  her, 
as  you  may  well  suppose,  a  lecture  upon  it.  This  dis- 
tinction of  man  and  monsieur  is  dreadful ;  but,  after 
all,  the  child  told  the  truth.  She  only  said,  with  her 
blunt  simplicity,  what  our  democratic  customs  still  al- 
low us  to  put  in  practice,  though  they  forbid  us  to  put 
it  into  words.  The  Revolution  of  '89  has  at  least 
introduced  that  virtuous  hypocrisy  into  our  social 
system . 

But  I  refrain  from  politics. 


190  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 


VIII.     THE    COMTESSE    DE    L  ESTORADE    TO    MADAME 
OCTAVE    DE    CAMPS. 

April,  1839. 

For  the  last  two  weeks  we  have  heard  nothing  more 
of  Monsieur  Dorlange.  Not  only  has  he  not  seen  fit  to 
renew  the  conversation  so  provokingly  interrupted  by 
Madame  de  la  Bastie,  but  he  has  not  even  remembered 
that  it  was  proper  to  leave  his  card  at  the  house  after 
a  dinner. 

While  we  were  breakfasting  yesterday  morning,  I 
happened  to  make  this  remark  (though  without  any 
sharpness),  and  just  then  our  Lucas,  who,  as  an  old 
servant,  sometimes  allows  himself  a  little  familiarity, 
had  the  door  swung  triumphantly  open  to  admit  him, 
bearing  something,  I  knew  not  what,  wrapped  in  tissue 
paper,  which  he  deposited  with  great  care  on  the  table, 
giving  a  note  to  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  at  the  same 
time. 

*'  What  is  that?"  I  said  to  Lucas,  on  whose  face  I 
detected  the  signs  of  a  "  surprise,"  at  the  same  time 
putting  out  my  hand  to  uncover  the  mysterious  article. 

"  Oh  !  madame  must  be  careful !  "  cried  Lucas ;  "  it 
is  fragile." 

During  this  time  my  husband  had  read  the  note, 
which  he  now  passed  to  me,  saying :  — 

"  Read  it.    Monsieur  Dorlange  sends  us  an  excuse." 

The  note  said  :  — 

Monsieur  le  CoxMte,  —  I  think  I  observed  that  Madame 
la  comtesse  granted  me  rather  reluctantly  her  permission  to 
profit  by  the  audacious  larceny  I  committed  at  her  expense. 
I  have,  therefore,  taken  upon  myself  to  change  the  character 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  191 

of  my  statue,  and,  at  the  present  moment,  the  tioo  sisters  no 
longer  resemble  each  other.  Nevertheless,  as  I  did  not  wish 
that  all  should  be  lost  to  the  world,  I  modelled  the  head  of 
Saint-Ursula  before  retouching  it.  From  that  model  I  have 
now  made  a  reduction,  which  I  place  upon  the  charming 
shoulders  of  a  countess  not  yet  canonized,  thank  God !  The 
mould  was  broken  as  soon  as  the  one  cast,  which  I  have  now 
the  honor  of  sending  you,  was  made.  This  fact  may,  per- 
haps, give  some  little  additional  value  to  the  bust  in  your 
eyes. 

Accept,  Monsieur  le  comte,  etc.,  etc. 

While  I  was  reading  the  note,  my  husband,  Lucas, 
Rene,  and  Nais  had  eagerly  extracted  me  from  my 
swathings,  and  then,  in  truth,  I  appeared  no  longer  a 
saint,  but  a  woman  of  the  world.  I  really  thought  my 
husband  and  cliildren  would  go  out  of  their  minds  with 
admiration  and  pleasure.  Tlie  news  of  this  masterpiece 
spread  about  the  house,  and  all  our  sei-vants,  whom  we 
rather  spoil,  came  flocking,  one  after  another,  as  if 
sent  for,  crying  out,  '^  Oh,  it  is  madame's  own  self!" 
I  alone  did  not  share  in  the  general  enthusiasm.  A8 
for  Monsieur  do  I'Estorade,  after  working  for  an  hour 
to  find  a  place  in  his  own  study  where  the  bust  could 
be  seen  in  its  best  light,  he  came  in  to  say  to  me  :  — 

"  On  my  way  to  the  Treasury  to-day  I  shall  go  and 
see  Monsieur  Dorlange,  and  if  he  is  at  liberty  this 
evening  I  shall  ask  him  to  dine  with  us.  To-day  is 
Armand's  half-holiday,  and  I  would  like  him  to  see 
the  boy.  The  assembled  family  can  then  thank  him 
for  his  gift.*' 

Monsieur  Dorlange  accepted  the  invitation.  At 
dinner  ^lonsieur  de  I'Estorade  inquired  further  about 


192  The  Deputy  of  At cis. 

his  candidacy,  giving  it  however,  no  approval.  This  led 
straight  to  politics.  Armand,  whose  mind  is  naturally 
grave  and  reflective  and  who  reads  the  newspapers, 
mingled  in  the  conversation.  Against  the  practice  of 
youths  of  the  present  day,  he  thinks  like  his  father ; 
that  is,  he  is  very  conservative ;  though  perhaps  less 
just  and  wise,  as  might  well  be  expected  in  a  lad  of 
fifteen.  He  was  consequently  led  to  contradict  Mon- 
sieur Dorlange,  whose  inclination  as  I  told  you,  is 
somewhat  jacobin.  And  I  must  say  I  thought  the 
arguments  of  my  little  man  neither  bad  nor  ill-ex 
pressed.  Without  ceasing  to  be  polite.  Monsieur 
Dorlange  had  an  air  of  disdaining  a  discussion  with  the 
poor  boy,  so  much  so  that  I  saw  Armand  on  the  point 
of  losing  patience  and  replying  sharply.  However,  as 
he  has  been  well  brought  up,  I  had  only  to  make  him 
a  sign  and  he  controlled  himself ;  but  seeing  him  turn 
scarlet  and  shut  himself  up  in  gloomy  silence,  I  felt 
that  his  pride  had  received  a  blow,  and  I  thought  it 
little  generous  in  Monsieur  Dorlange  to  crush  a  young 
lad  in  that  way. 

I  know  very  well  that  children  in  these  days  make 
the  mistake  of  wishing  to  be  personages  before  their 
time,  and  that  it  often  does  them  good  to  suppress  such 
conceit.  But  really,  Armand  has  an  intellectual  de- 
velopment and  a  power  of  reasoning  beyond  his  age. 
Do  you  want  a  proof  of  it?  Until  last  year,  I  had 
never  consented  to  part  with  him,  and  it  was  only  as  a 
day  scholar  that  he  followed  his  course  of  study  at  the 
College  Henri  lY.  Well,  he  himself,  for  the  sake  of 
his  studies,  which  were  hindered  by  going  and  coming 
to  and  fro,  asked  to  be  placed  in  the  regular  manner 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  193 

in  the  school;  and  he  employed  more  entreaties  and 
arguments  with  nie  to  put  him  under  that  discipline 
than  an  ordinary  boy  would  have  used  to  escape  it. 
Therefore  this  manly  air  and  manner,  which  in  most 
schoolboys  would,  of  course,  be  intolerably  ridiculous, 
seems  in  him  the  result  of  his  natural  precocity ;  and 
this  precocity  ought  to  be  forgiven  him,  inasmuch  as  it 
comes  to  him  from  God. 

In  consequence  of  his  unfortunate  birth  Monsieur 
Dorlange  is  less  fitted  than  most  men  to  judge  of 
children  in  their  homes,  and  he  therefore,  necessarily, 
shows  a  want  of  indulgence.  But  he  had  better  take 
care  ;  if  he  wishes  to  pay  court  to  me  merely  as  a  friend 
he  has  chosen  a  very  bad  method  of  doing  so. 

Of  course  an  evening  in  the  midst  of  the  family  did 
not  allow  of  his  returning  to  the  subject  of  his  private 
history  ;  but  I  thought  he  did  not  show  any  particular 
desire  to  do  so.  In  fact,  he  occupied  himself  much 
more  with  Nais  than  with  me,  cutting  out  silhouettes 
in  black  paper  for  her  during  nearly  the  whole  evening. 
I  must  also  mention  that  Madame  de  Rastignac  came 
in  and  I,  on  my  side,  was  obliged  to  give  my  company 
to  her.  While  we  were  conversing  near  the  fire.  Mon- 
sieur Dorlange  at  the  other  end  of  the  room  was  posing 
the  two  children  Nais  and  Rene,  who  presently  brought 
me  their  likenesses  snipped  out  with  scissors,  Nais 
whispering  triumphantly  in  my  ear:  — 

''  You  don't  know  ;  but  Monsieur  Dorlange  is  going 
to  make  my  bust  in  marble." 

Since  this  family  dinner,  civil  war  has  been  declared 
among  my  children.  NaVs  extols  to  the  skies  her  **  dear 
preserver,"  as  she  calls  him,  and  is  supported  in  her 

13 


194  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

opinion  by  Rene,  who  is  delivered  over  to  the  sculptor 
body  and  soul  in  return  for  a  superb  lancer  on  horse- 
back which  Monsieur  Dorlange  cut  out  for  him.  Ar- 
mand,  on  the  contrary,  thinks  him  ugly,  which  is 
undeniable ;  he  says  he  resembles  the  portraits  of 
Danton  which  he  has  seen  in  the  illustrated  histories  of 
the  Revolution,  in  which  remark  there  is  some  truth. 
He  says  also  that  Monsieur  Dorlange  has  given  me  in 
my  bust  the  air  of  a  grisette,  which  is  not  true  at  all. 
Hence,  disputes  among  my  darlings  which  are  endless. 

IX.     DORLANGE    TO     MARIE-GASTON. 

Paris,  April,  1839. 

Wliy  do  I  desert  my  art,  and  what  do  T  intend  to  do 
in  this  cursed  galley  of  politics?  This  shows  what  it 
is,  my  dear  romantic  friend,  to  shut  one's  self  up  for 
years  in  a  conjugal  convent.  During  that  time  the 
world  has  progressed.  To  friends  forgotten  at  the 
gate  life  brings  new  combinations ;  and  the  more  they 
are  ignored,  the  more  disposed  the  forge tter  is  to  cast 
the  blame  upon  those  forgotten  ;  it  is  so  easy  to  preach 
to  others ! 

Learn,  then,  my  dear  inquisitor,  that  I  do  not  enter 
politics  of  my  own  volition.  In  pushing  myself  in  this 
unexpected  manner  into  the  electoral  breach,  I  merely 
follow  an  inspiration  that  has  been  made  to  me.  A 
ray  of  light  has  come  into  my  darkness  ;  a  father  has 
partly  revealed  himself,  and,  if  I  may  believe  appear- 
ances, he  holds  a  place  in  the  world  which  ought  to 
satisfy  the  most  exacting  ambition.  This  revelation, 
considering  the  very  ordinary  course  of  my  life,  has 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  195 

come  to  me  surrounded  by  fantastic  and  romantic  cir- 
cumstances  which  deserve  to  be  related  to  you  in  some 
detail. 

As  you  have  lived  in  Italy,  I  think  it  useless  to  ex- 
plain to  you  the  Cafe  Greco,  the  usual  rendezvous  of 
the  pupils  of  the  Academy  and  the  artists  of  all 
countries  wlio  flock  to  Rome.  In  Paris,  rue  de  Coq- 
Saint-Honore,  we  have  a  distant  counterpart  of  that 
institution  in  a  cafe  long  known  as  that  of  the  Caf^ 
des  Arts.  Two  or  three  times  a  week  I  spend  an 
evening  there,  where  I  meet  several  of  my  contera- 
poraries  in  the  French  Academy  in  Rome.  They  have 
introduced  me  to  a  number  of  journalists  and  men  of 
letters,  all  of  them  amiable  and  distinguished  men, 
with  whom  there  is  both  profit  and  pleasure  in  ex- 
changing ideas. 

In  a  certain  corner,  where  we  gather,  many  questions 
of  a  nature  to  interest  serious  minds  are  debated  ;  but 
the  most  eager  interest,  nanjely  politics,  takes  the  lead 
in  our  discussions.  In  this  little  club  the  prevailing 
opinion  is  democratic ;  it  is  represented  under  all  its 
aspects,  the  phalansterian  Utopia  not  excepted.  That's 
enough  to  tell  you  that  before  this  tribunal  the  ways  of 
the  government  are  often  judged  with  severity,  and 
that  the  utmost  liberty  of  language  reigns  in  our  dis- 
cussions. The  consequence  is  that  about  a  year  ago 
the  waiter  who  serves  us  habitually  took  me  aside  one 
day  to  give  me,  as  he  said,  a  timely  warning. 

*'  Monsieur,"  he  said,  '*  you  are  watched  by  the 
police ;  and  you  would  do  well  not  to  talk  like  Saint 
Paul,  open-mouthed." 

*'  The  police  !  my  good  friend,"  I  replied,  *'  why  the 


196  The  Be'puty  of  Arcis, 

devil  should  the  police  watch  me?  What  I  say,  and 
a  good  deal  else,  is  printed  every  morning  in  the 
newspapers." 

"  No  matter  for  that,  they  are  watching  yon.  I 
have  seen  it.  There  is  a  little  old  man,  who  takes  a 
great  deal  of  snuff,  who  is  always  within  hearing 
distance  of  you ;  when  you  speak  he  seems  to  pay 
more  attention  to  your  words  than  to  those  of  the 
others ;  and  once  I  saw  him  write  something  down  in 
a  note-book  in  marks  that  were  not  writing." 

"Well,  the  next  time  he  comes,  point  him  out 
to  me." 

The  next  time  proved  to  be  the  next  day.  The 
person  shown  to  me  was  a  short  man  with  gray  hair,  a 
rather  neglected  person  and  a  face  deeply  pitted  with 
the  small-pox,  which  seemed  to  make  him  out  about 
fifty  years  of  age.  He  frequently  dipped  in  a  large 
snuffbox ;  and  seemed  to  be  giving  to  my  remarks  an 
attention  I  might  consider  either  flattering  or  inquis- 
itive, as  I  pleased  ;  but  a  certain  air  of  gentleness  and 
integrity  in  this  supposed  police-spy  inclined  me  to  the 
kinder  interpretation.  I  said  so  to  ihe  waiter,  who  had 
plumed  himself  on  discovering  a  spy. 

"  Parhleu!"  he  replied,  "  they  always  put  on  that 
honeyed  manner  to  hide  their  game." 

Two  days  later,  on  a  Sunday,  at  the  hour  of  vespers, 
in  one  of  my  rambles  about  old  Paris  —  for  which,  as 
you  know,  I  always  had  a  taste  —  I  happened  to 
enter  the  church  of  Saint-Louis-en-l'Ile,  the  parish  church 
of  the  remote  quarter  of  the  city  which  bears  that  name. 
This  church  is  a  building  of  very  little  interest,  no 
matter  what  historians  and  certain  "  Guides  to  Paris  " 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  197 

may  say.  I  should  therefore  have  passed  rapidly 
through  it  if  the  remarkable  talent  of  the  organist  who 
was  performing  part  of  the  service  had  not  induced  me 
to  remain. 

To  say  that  the  playing  of  that  man  realized  my 
ideal  is  giving  it  high  praise,  for  I  dare  say  you  will 
remember  that  I  always  distinguished  between  organ- 
players  and  organists,  a  superior  order  of  nobility  the 
title  of  which  is  not  to  be  given  unwittingly. 

The  service  over,  I  had  a  curiosity  to  see  the  face  of 
so  eminent  an  artist  buried  in  that  out-of-the-way 
place.  Accordingly  I  posted  myself  near  the  door  of 
the  organ  loft,  to  see  him  as  he  left  the  church  —  a 
thing  I  certainly  would  not  have  done  for  a  crowned 
head  ;  but  great  artists,  after  all,  are  they  not  kings  by 
divine  right? 

Imagine  my  amazement  when,  after  waiting  a  few 
minutes,  instead  of  seeing  a  totally  unknown  face  I  saw 
that  of  a  man  in  wiiom  I  recognized  my  listener  at  the 
Cafe  des  Arts.  But  that  is  not  all:  behind  him  came 
the  semblance  of  a  human  being  in  whose  crooked  legs 
and  bushy  tangled  hair  I  recognized  my  old  tri-monthly 
providence,  my  banker,  the  money-bririger,  —  in  a  word 
my  worthy  friend,  the  mysterious  dwarf. 

I  did  not  escape,  myself,  his  vigilant  eye,  and  I  saw 
him  point  me  out  to  the  organist  with  an  eager  gesture. 
Tlie  latter  turned  hastily  to  look  at  me  and  then,  with- 
out further  demonstration,  continued  his  way.  Mean- 
time the  bandy-legged  creature  went  up  familiarly  to 
the  giver  of  holy- water  and  offered  him  a  pinch  of 
snuff ;  then  without  paying  any  further  attention  to  me, 
he  limped  to  a  low  door  at  the  side  of  the  church  and 


198  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

disappeared.  The  evident  pains  this  deformed  being 
bad  taken  to  fix  the  organist's  attention  upon  me 
seemed  to  me  a  revelation.  Evidently,  the  maestro 
knew  of  the  singular  manner  by  which  my  quarterly 
stipend  reached  me ;  which  stipend,  I  should  tell  you, 
had  been  regularly  continued  until  my  orders  for  work 
so  increased  as  to  put  me  beyond  all  necessity.  It  was 
not  improbable  therefore  that  this  man,  who  listened 
to  me  at  the  Cafe  des  Arts,  was  the  repository  of  other 
secrets  relating  to  my  early  life ;  and  I  became  most 
eager  to  obtain  an  explanation  from  him ;  all  the  more 
because,  as  1  was  now  living  on  my  own  resources,  my 
curiosity  could  not  be  punished,  as  formerly  threatened, 
by  the  withdrawal  of  my  subsidy. 

Making  my  decision  quickly,  I  followed  the  organist 
at  once ;  but  by  the  time  I  reached  the  door  of  the 
church  he  was  out  of  sight.  However,  my  luck 
prompted  me  to  follow  the  direction  he  had  taken,  and 
as  I  reached  the  quai  de  Bethune  I  saw  him  to  my  great 
joy  rapping  at  the  door  of  a  house.  Entering  resolutely 
after  him,  I  asked  the  porter  for  the  organist  of  Saint- 
Louis-de-l'lle. 

''  Monsieur  Jacques  Bricheteau?  " 

"Yes;  Monsieur  Jacques  Bricheteau ;  he  lives  here 
I  believe." 

"Fourth  floor  above  the  entresol,  door  to  the  left. 
He  has  just  come  in,  and  you  can  overtake  him  on  the 
stairs." 

Rapidly  as  I  ran  up,  my  man  had  the  key  of  his  door 
already  in  the  lock  when  I  readied  him. 

"  Have  I  the  honor  of  speaking  to  Monsieur  Jacques 
Bricheteau?  "  I  asked. 


The  Deputy  of  Areis.  199 

''  Don't  know  any  such  person,"  he  replied  with 
eflfiontery,  unlocking  his  dooi*. 

*■'  Perhaps  I  pronounce  the  name  incorrectly  ;  I  mean 
the  organist  of  Saint-Louis-de-l'lle." 

*'  I  have  never  heard  of  any  organist  in  this  house." 

"Pardon  me,  monsieur,  there  is  one,  for  the  con- 
cierge has  just  told  me  so.  Besides  I  saw  you  leave  the 
organ  loft  of  that  church  followed  by  an  individual 
who—" 

Before  I  could  finish  my  sentence  this  singular 
individual  cut  short  our  interview  by  entering  his 
apartment  and  locking  the  door  behind  him.  For  a 
moment  I  thought  that  I  must  have  been  mistaken ; 
but  on  reflection  I  saw  that  a  mistake  was  impossible. 
I  had  to  do  with  a  man  who,  for  years,  had  proved  his 
unremitting  discretion.  No,  he  was  obstinately  bent 
on  avoiding  me ;  I  was  not  mistaken  in  recognizing 
him. 

I  then  began  to  pull  the  bell  vigorously,  being  quite 
resolved  to  get  some  answer  at  least  to  my  demand. 
For  some  little  time  the  besieged  took  the  racket  I 
made  patiently ;  then,  all  of  a  sudden,  I  noticed  that 
the  bell  had  ceased  to  ring.  Evidently,  the  wire  was 
disconnected  ;  the  besieged  was  secure,  unless  I  kicked 
in  the  door ;  but  that  of  course,  was  not  altogether  the 
thing  to  do. 

I  returned  to  the  porter  and,  without  giving  the 
reasons  for  my  discomfiture,  I  told  him  about  it.  In 
that  way  I  won  his  confidence  and  so  obtained  some 
little  information  about  the  impenetrable  Monsieur 
Jacques  Bricheteau.  Though  readily  given,  this  in- 
formation did  not  enlisjhten  me  at  all  as  to  the  actual 


200  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

situation.  Bricheteau  was  said  to  be  a  quiet  lodger, 
civil,  but  not  communicative  ;  though  punctual  in  pay- 
ing his  rent,  his  means  seemed  small ;  he  kept  no 
servant  and  took  his  meals  out  of  the  house.  Going 
out  every  morning  before  ten  o'clock,  he  seldom  came 
in  before  night ;  the  inference  was  that  he  was  either  a 
clerk  in  some  office,  or  that  he  gave  music  lessons  in 
private  houses. 

One  detail  alone  in  the  midst  of  this  vague  and  use- 
less information  was  of  interest.  For  the  last  few 
months  Monsieur  Jacques  Bricheteau  had  received  a 
voluminous  number  of  letters  the  postage  on  which 
indicated  that  they  came  from  foreign  parts  ;  but,  in 
spite  of  his  desires,  the  worthy  concierge  had  never, 
he  said,  been  able  to  decipher  the  post-mark.  Thus 
this  detail,  which  might  have  been  very  useful  to  me 
became  for  the  moment  absolutely  worthless. 

I  returned  home,  persuading  myself  that  a  pathetic 
letter  addressed  to  the  refractory  Bricheteau  would 
induce  him  to  receive  me.  Mingling  with  my  entreaties 
the  touch  of  a  threat,  I  let  him  know  that  I  was  firmly 
resolved  at  all  costs  to  get  to  the  bottom  of  the  mys- 
tery which  weighed  upon  my  life ;  the  secret  of  which 
he  evidently  knew.  The  next  morning,  before  nine 
o'clock,  I  went  to  his  house,  only  to  learn  that  after 
paying  the  rent  to  the  end  of  his  term,  he  had  packed 
up  his  furniture  and  left  the  house  in  the  early  morn- 
ing, without  the  porter  being  able  to  discover  from 
the  men  who  removed  his  property  (well-paid  to  keep 
silence,  no  doubt)  where  they  were  ordered  to  carry 
it.  These  men  being  strangers  in  the  quarter,  it  was 
quite  impossible  to  discover  them  later. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  201 

I  felt,  however,  that  I  still  had  a  clue  to  him,  through 
the  organ  at  Saiut-Louis,  and  the  following  Sunday 
after  high  mass  I  posted  myself  as  before  at  the 
door  of  the  organ  loft,  determined  not  to  let  go  of  the 
sphinx  until  I  had  made  him  speak.  But  here  again, 
disappointment !  Monsieur  Jacques  Bricheteau's  place 
was  taken  by  a  pupil.  The  same  thing  happened  on 
the  three  following  Sundays.  On  the  fourth,  I  ac- 
costed the  pupil  and  asked  him  if  the  master  were  ill. 

''No,  monsieur,"  he  replied.  "Monsieur  Briehe- 
teau  has  asked  for  leave  of  absence.  He  will  be  ab- 
sent for  some  time ;  I  believe  on  business." 

"  Where,  then,  can  I  write  to  him?  " 

"  I  don't  rightly  know  ;  but  I  think  you  had  better 
address  your  letter  to  his  house ;  not  far  from  here, 
quai  de  Bethune." 

"  But  he  has  moved  ;  did  n't  you  know  it?" 

"  No,  indeed  ;  where  does  he  live  now?  " 

This  was  poor  luck;  to  ask  information  of  a  man 
who  asked  it  of  me  when  I  questioned  him.  As  if  to 
put  me  quite  beside  myself  while  I  was  making  these 
inquiries,  I  saw  that  damned  dwarf  in  the  distance 
evidently  laughing  at  me. 

Happily  for  my  patience  and  my  curiosity,  which, 
under  the  pressure  of  all  this  opposition  was  growing 
terrible,  a  certain  amount  of  light  was  given  me.  A 
few  days  after  my  last  discomfiture,  a  letter  reached 
me  bearing  the  post-mark  Stockholm,  Sweden ;  which 
address  did  not  surprise  me  because,  wliile  in  Rome,  I 
had  been  honored  by  the  friendship  of  Thorwaldsen, 
the  great  Swedish  sculptor,  and  I  had  often  met  in  his 
studio  many  of  his  compatriots.     Probably,  therefore, 


202  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

this  letter  conveyed  an  order  from  one  of  them,  sent 
through  Thorwaldsen.  Bat,  on  opening  the  letter 
what  was  my  amazement,  and  my  emotion,  in  presence 
of  its  opening  words  :  — 

"  Monsieur,  my  son  —  " 

The  letter  was  long.  I  had  no  patience  to  read  it 
until  I  knew  the  name  I  bore.  I  turned  to  the  signa- 
ture ;  again  my  disappointment  was  complete  —  there 
was  no  name ! 

"  Monsieur  my  Son,"  said  my  anonymous  father, 
—  "  I  do  not  regret  that  by  your  passionate  insistence 
on  knowing  the  secret  of  your  birth,  you  have  forced 
the  person  who  has  watched  over  you  from  childhood 
to  come  here  to  confer  with  me  as  to  the  course  your 
vehement  and  dangerous  curiosity  requires  us  to 
pursue. 

*'  For  some  time  past,  I  have  entertained  a  thought 
which  I  bring  to  maturity  to-day;  the  execution  of 
which  could  have  been  more  satisfactorily  settled  by 
word  of  mouth  than  it  can  now  be  by  correspondence. 

"  Immediately  after  your  birth,  which  cost  your 
mother's  life,  being  forced  to  expatriate  myself,  I 
made  in  a  foreign  country  a  noble  fortune,  and  I 
occupy  in  the  ministry  of  that  country  an  eminent 
position.  I  foresee  the  moment  when,  free  to  restore 
to  you  my  name,  I  shall  also  be  able  to  secure  to  you 
the  inheritance  of  my  titles  and  the  position  to  which 
I  have  attained. 

"  But,  to  reach  that  height,  the  reputation  you  have, 
I  am  told,  acquired  in  art  is  not  a  sufficient  recom- 
mendation.    It  is  my  wish   that  you    should    enter 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  203 

political  life ;  and  in  that  career,  under  the  present 
institutions  of  France,  there  are  not  two  ways  of 
becoming  a  man  of  distinction  :  you  must  begin  by 
being  made  a  deputy.  I  know  that  you  are  not  j^et  of 
the  legal  age,  and  also  that  you  do  not  possess  the 
property  qualification.  But,  in  another  year  you  will 
be  thirty  years  old,  and  that  is  just  the  necessary  time 
requii-ed  by  law  to  be  a  land-owner  before  becoming  a 
candidate  for  election. 

"  To-morrow,  therefore,  you  can  present  yourself  to 
Mongcnod  Bros.,  bankers,  rue  de  la  Victoire.  A  sum 
of  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  francs  will  be  paid 
to  you  ;  this  you  must  immediately  employ  in  the  pur- 
chase of  real  estate,  applying  part  of  the  surplus  to 
obtain  an  interest  in  some  newspaper  which,  when  the 
right  time  comes,  will  support  your  candidacy,  and  the 
rest  in  another  expense  I  shall  presently  explain  to 
you. 

"  Your  political  aptitude  is  guaranteed  to  me  b}'^  the 
person  who,  with  a  disinterested  zeal  for  which  I  shall 
ever  be  grateful,  has  watched  over  you  since  you 
were  abandoned.  For  some  time  past  he  has  secretly 
followed  you  and  listened  to  you,  and  he  is  certain 
that  you  will  make  yourself  a  dignified  position  in  the 
Chamber.  Your  opinions  of  ardent  yet  moderate 
liberalism  please  me ;  without  being  aware  of  it,  you 
have  very  cleverly  played  into  my  game.  I  cannot  as 
yet  tell  you  the  place  of  your  probable  election.  The 
secret  power  which  is  preparing  for  that  event  is  all 
the  more  certain  to  succeed  because  its  plans  are  pur- 
sued quietly  and  for  the  present  in  the  shade.  But 
success  will  be  greatly  assisted  by  the  execution  of  a 


204  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

work  which  I  shall  now  propose  to  you,  requesting 
you  to  accept  its  apparent  strangeness  without  surprise 
or  comment. 

"For  the  time  being  you  must  continue  to  be  a 
sculptor,  and  with  the  talents  of  which  you  have  al- 
ready given  proofs,  I  wish  you  to  make  a  statue  of 
Saint-Ursula.  That  is  a  subject  which  does  not  lack 
either  interest  or  poesy.  Saint-Ursula,  virgin  and  mar- 
tyr, was,  as  is  generally  believed,  a  daughter  of  a 
prince  of  Great  Britain.  Becoming  the  abbess  of  a 
convent  of  unmarried  women,  who  were  called  with 
popular  naivete  the  Eleven  Thousand  Virgins,  she  was 
martyred  by  the  Huns  in  the  fifth  century ;  later,  she 
was  patroness  of  the  order  of  the  Ursulines,  to  which 
she  gave  its  name,  and  she  was  also  patroness  of  the 
famous  house  of  Sorbonne.  An  able  artist  like  your- 
self could,  it  seems  to  me,  make  much  of  these  details. 

"  Without  knowing  the  locality  of  which  you  will  be 
made  the  representative,  it  is  expedient  that  you  should 
from  the  present  moment,  make  known  your  political 
opinions  and  your  intention  of  becoming  a  candidate 
for  election.  But  I  cannot  too  strongly  insist  on  your 
keeping  secret  the  communication  now  made  to  you ; 
at  any  rate  as  much  as  your  patience  will  allow.  Leave 
my  agent  in  peace,  and  await  the  slow  and  quiet  devel- 
opment of  the  brilliant  future  to  which  you  are  des- 
tined, without  yielding  to  a  curiosity  which  might,  I 
warn  you,  lead  to  great  disasters. 

"If  you  refuse  to  enter  my  plans,  you  will  take 
from  yourself  all  chance  of  ever  penetrating  a  mystery 
which  you  have  shown  yourself  so  eager  to  understand. 
But  I  do  not  admit  even  the  supposition  of  your  resist- 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  205 

ance,  and  I  prefer  to  believe  iu  your  deference  to  the 
wishes  of  a  father  who  will  regard  it  as  the  finest  day 
of  liis  life  when  at  last  it  be  granted  to  him  to  reveal 
himself  to  his  son. 

''P.  S.  Your  statue,  which  is  intended  for  a  con- 
vent of  Ursuline  nuns,  must  be  in  white  marble. 
Height :  one  metre  seven  hundred  and  six  millimetres  ; 
in  other  words,  five  feet  three  inches.  As  it  will  not 
be  placed  in  a  niche,  you  must  carefully  finish  all  sides 
of  it.  The  costs  of  the  work  are  to  be  taken  out  of  the 
two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  francs  mentioned  above." 

This  letter  chilled  and  pained  me.  In  the  first  place, 
it  took  from  me  a  hope  long  cherished,  —  that  of  recover- 
ing a  mother  as  loving  as  yours,  of  whose  adorable  ten- 
derness, dear  friend,  you  have  so  often  told  me.  After 
all,  it  was  a  half-light  thrown  upon  the  fogs  of  my 
life  without  even  allowing  me  to  know  whether  I  was 
or  was  not  the  child  of  a  legitimate  marriage.  It  also 
seemed  to  me  that  such  paternal  intimations  addressed 
to  a  man  of  my  age  were  much  too  despotic  and  impe- 
rious. Was  it  not  a  strange  proceeding  to  change  my 
whole  life  as  if  I  were  a  boy  just  leaving  school !  At 
first  I  employed  to  myself  all  the  arguments  against 
this  political  vocation  which  you  and  my  otiier  friends 
have  since  addressed  to  me.  Nevertheless  curiosity 
impelled  me  to  go  to  the  ^fongenods' ;  and  finding  there, 
sure  enough,  in  actual,  living  money,  the  two  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  francs  announced  to  me,  I  was  led 
to  reason  in  another  way. 

I  reflected  that  a  will  which  began  by  making  such 
an  outlay  must  have   something  serious  in  it.      And 


206  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

inasmuch  as  this  mysterious  father  knew  all  and  I 
nothing,  it  seemed  to  me  that  to  enter  on  a  struggle 
with  him  was  neither  reasonable  nor  opportune.  In 
fact,  had  I  any  real  repugnance  to  the  career  suggested 
to  me?  No.  Political  interests  have  always  roused 
me  to  a  certain  degree;  and  if  my  electoral  attempt 
should  come  to  nothing,  I  could  always  return  to  my 
art  without  being  more  ridiculous  than  the  other  still- 
born ambitions  which  each  new  legislature  produces. 

Accordingly,  I  have  bought  the  necessary  piece  of 
property,  and  made  myself  a  shareholder  in  the 
"National."  I  have  also  made  the  Saint-Ursula,  and 
am  now  awaiting  instructions,  which  seem  to  me  rather 
long  in  coming,  as  to  her  actual  destination.  More- 
over, I  have  made  known  my  parliamentary  ambition, 
and  the  fact  that  I  intend  to  stand  in  the  coming 
elections. 

I  need  not  ask  you  to  preserve  the  utmost  secrecy 
about  m}'  present  confidence.  Discretion  is  a  virtue 
which  you  practise,  to  my  knowledge,  in  too  signal  a 
manner  to  need  any  exhorting  thereto  from  me.  But 
I  am  wrong,  dear  friend,  in  making  these  unkind 
allusions  to  the  past,  for  at  this  moment  I  am,  more 
perhaps  than  you  know,  the  obliged  party.  Partly  out 
of  interest  in  me,  but  more  because  of  the  general 
aversion  your  ex-brother-in-law's  extreme  haughtiness 
inspires,  the  democratic  party  has  flocked  to  my  door 
to  make  inquiries  about  my  wound,  and  the  talk  and 
excitement  about  this  duel  have  served  me  well ;  there 
is  no  doubt  that  my  candidacy  has  gained  much  ground. 
Therefore,  I  say,  a  truce  to  your  gratitude;  do  you 
not  see  how  much  I  owe  to  you  ? 


The  Dejputy  of  Arcis.  207 

X.     DORLANGE   TO   MARIE-GASTON. 

Paris,  April,  1839. 

Dear  Friend,  — For  better  or  for  worse,  I  continue 
my  candidacy  witliout  a  constituency  to  elect  me. 
Tiiis  surprises  my  friends  and  worries  me,  for  it  is 
only  a  few  weeks  now  to  the  general  election  ;  and  if  it 
happens  that  all  this  mysterious  '^  preparation  "  comes 
to  nought,  a  pretty  figure  I  shall  cut  in  the  caricatures 
of  Monsieur  Bixiou,  of  whose  malicious  remarks  on 
the  subject  you  lately  wrote  me. 

One  thing  reassures  me :  it  does  not  seem  likely 
that  any  one  would  have  sown  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  francs  in  my  electoral  furrow  without  feel- 
ing pretty  sure  of  gathering  a  harvest.  Perhaps,  to 
take  a  cheerful  view  of  the  matter,  this  very  slowness 
may  be  considered  as  showing  great  confidence  of 
success. 

However  that  may  be,  I  am  kept  by  this  long  delay 
in  a  state  of  inaction  which  weighs  upon  me.  Astride 
as  it  were  of  two  existences, —  one  in  which  I  have  not 
set  foot,  the  other  in  which  my  foot  still  lingers,  —  I 
have  no  heart  to  undertake  real  work ;  I  am  like  a 
traveller  who,  having  arrived  before  the  hour  when 
the  diligence  starts,  does  not  know  what  to  do  with 
his  person  nor  how  to  spend  his  time.  You  will  not 
complain,  I  think,  that  I  turn  this  enforced  far  niente 
to  the  profit  of  our  correspondence ;  and  now  that 
I  am  thus  at  leisure,  I  shall  take  up  two  points  in 
your  last  letter  which  did  not  seem  to  me  of  sufficient 
importance  to  pay  much  attention  to  at  the  time:  I 
refer  to  your  warning  that  my  parliamentary  preten- 


208  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

sions  did  not  meet  the  approval  of  Monsieur  Bixiou ; 
and  to  your  suggestion  that  I  might  expose  myself  to 
falling  in  love  with  Madame  de  I'P^storade  —  if  I  were 
not  in  love  with  her  already.  Let  us  discuss,  in  the 
first  instance,  Monsieur  Bixiou's  grand  disapprobation 
— just  as  we  used  to  talk  in  the  olden  time  of  the 
grand  treachery  of  Monsieur  de  Mirabeau. 

I  '11  describe  that  man  to  you  in  a  single  word, 
Envy.  In  Monsieur  Bixiou  there  is,  unquestionably, 
the  makings  of  a  great  artist;  but  in  the  economy 
of  his  existence  the  belly  has  annihilated  the  heart 
and  the  head,  and  he  is  now  and  forever  under  the 
dominion  of  sensual  appetites  ;  he  is  riveted  to  the 
condition  of  a  caricaturist^  —  that  is  to  say,  to  the  con- 
dition of  a  man  who  from  day  to  day  discounts  him- 
self in  petty  products,  regular  galley-slave  pot-boilers, 
which,  to  be  sure,  give  him  a  lively  living,  but  in 
themselves  are  worthless  and  have  no  future.  With 
talents  misused  and  now  impotent,  he  has  in  his  mind, 
as  he  has  on  his  face,  that  everlasting  and  despairing 
grin  which  human  thought  instinctively  attributes  to 
fallen  angels.  Just  as  the  Spirit  of  darkness  attacks, 
in  preference,  great  saints  because  they  recall  to  him 
most  bitterly  the  angelic  nature  from  which  he  has 
fallen,  so  Monsieur  Bixiou  delights  to  slaver  the 
talents  and  characters  of  those  who  he  sees  have 
courageously  refused  to  squander  their  strength,  sap, 
and  aims  as  he  has  done. 

But  the  thing  which  ought  to  reassure  you  somewhat 
as  to  the  danger  of  his  calumny  and  his  slander  (for 
he  employs  both  forms  of  backbiting)  is  that  at  the 
very  time  when  he  believes  he  is  making  a  burlesque 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  209 

autopsy  of  me  he  is  actually  an  obedient  puppet  whose 
wire  1  hold  in  my  hands,  and  whom  I  am  making  talk 
as  I  please.  Being  convinced  that  a  certain  amount 
of  noisy  discussion  would  advance  my  political  career, 
I  looked  about  me  for  what  I  may  call  a  public  crier. 
Among  these  circus  trumpets,  if  I  could  have  found 
one  with  a  sharper  tone,  a  more  deafening  blare  than 
Bixiou's,  I  would  have  chosen  it.  As  it  was,  I  have 
profited  by  the  malevolent  curiosity  which  induces  tiiat 
amiable  lepidopter  to  insinuate  himself  into  all  studios. 
1  confided  the  whole  affair  to  him;  even  to  the  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  francs  (which  I  attributed  to 
a  lucky  stroke  at  the  Bourse),  T  told  him  all  my  plans 
of  parliamentary  conduct,  down  to  the  number  of  the 
house  I  have  bought  to  conform  to  the  requirements 
of  the  electoral  law.  It  is  all  jotted  down  in  his  note- 
book. 

That  statement,  I  think,  would  somewhat  reduce 
the  admiration  of  his  hearers  in  the  salon  Montcornet 
did  they  know  of  it.  As  for  the  political  horoscope 
which  he  has  been  so  kind  as  to  draw  for  me,  I  can- 
not honestly  say  that  his  astrology  is  at  fault.  It 
is  very  certain  that  with  my  intention  of  following  no 
set  of  fixed  opinions,  I  must  reach  the  situation  so 
admirably  summed  up  by  the  lawyer  of  Monsieur  de 
la  Palisse,  when  he  exclaimed  with  burlesque  em- 
phasis :  '*  What  do  you  do,  gentlemen,  when  you 
place  a  man  in  solitude?     You  isolate  him." 

Isolation  will  certainly  be  my  lot,  and  the  artist-life, 
in  wliich  a  man  lives  alone  and  draws  from  himself 
like  the  Great  Creator  whose  work  he  toils  to  imitate, 
has   predisposed   me  to  welcome   the  situation.     But 

14 


210  The  Deputy  of  ArciL 

although,  in  the  beginDiiig  especially,  it  will  deprive 
me  of  all  influence  in  the  lobbies,  it  may  serve  me 
well  in  the  tribune,  where  I  shall  be  able  to  speak  with 
strength  and  freedom.  Being  bound  by  no  promises 
and  by  no  party  trammels,  nothing  will  prevent  me 
from  being  the  man  I  am,  and  expressing,  in  all  their 
sacred  crudity,  the  ideas  which  I  think  sound  and 
just.  I  know  very  well  that  before  an  audience  plain, 
honest  truth  may  fail  to  be  contagious  or  even  wel- 
come. But  have  you  never  remarked  that,  by  using 
our  opportunities  wisely,  we  finally  meet  with  days 
which  may  be  called  the  festivals  of  morality  and 
intelligence,  days  on  which,  naturally  and  almost 
without  effort,  the  thought  of  good  triumphs? 

I  do  not,  however,  conceal  from  myself  that, 
although  I  may  reach  to  some  reputation  as  an  orator, 
such  a  course  will  never  lead  to  a  ministry,  and  that 
it  does  not  bestow  that  reputation  of  being  a  practical 
man  to  which  it  is  now  the  fashion  to  sacrifice  so  much. 
But  if  at  arm's  length  in  the  tribune  I  have  but  little 
influence,  I  shall  make  my  mark  at  a  greater  distance. 
I  shall  speak  as  it  were  from  a  window,  beyond  the 
close  and  narrow  sphere  of  parliamentary  discussion, 
and  above  the  level  of  its  petty  passions  and  its  petty 
interests.  This  species  of  success  appears  to  meet  the 
views  of  the  mysterious  paternal  intentions  towards 
me.  What  they  seem  to  require  is  that  I  shall  sound 
and  resound.  From  that  point  of  view,  i'  faith,  politics 
have  a  poetic  side  which  is  not  out  of  keeping  with  my 
past  life. 

Now,  to  take  up  your  other  warning :  that  of  my 
passion  born  or  to  be  born  for  Madame  de  I'Estorade. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  211 

I  quote  yonr  most  judicious  deductions  for  the  purpose 
of  auswering  them  fully. 

In  1837,  when  you  left  for  Italy,  Madame  de  I'Esto- 
rade  was,  you  say,  in  the  flower  of  her  beauty  ;  and  the 
queer,  audacious  persistence  which  I  have  shown  in 
deriving  inspiration  from  her  shows  that  it  has  not 
faded.  Hence,  if  the  evil  be  not  already  done,  you 
warn  me  to  be  on  my  guard ;  from  the  admiration  of 
an  artist  to  the  adoration  of  the  man  there  is  but  a 
step,  and  the  history  of  the  late  Pygmalion  is  com- 
mended  to  my  study. 

In  the  first  place,  learned  doctor  and  mythologian, 
allow  me  this  remark.  Being  on  the  spot  and  there- 
fore much  better  placed  than  you  to  judge  of  the 
dangers  of  the  situation,  I  can  assure  you  that  the 
principal  person  concerned  does  not  appear  to  feel 
the  least  anxiety.  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  quarrels 
with  me  for  one  thing  only :  he  thinks  my  visits  too 
few,  and  my  reserve  misanthropy. 

Parhlen!  I  hear  you  say,  a  husband  is  always  the 
last  to  know  that  his  wife  is  being  courted.  So  be  it. 
But  the  high  renown  of  Madame  de  I'Estorade's  virtue, 
her  cold  and  rather  calculating  good  sense,  which  often 
served  to  balance  the  ardent  and  passionate  impetu- 
osity of  one  you  knew  well,  —  what  of  that?  And  will 
you  not  grant  that  motherhood  as  it  appears  in  that 
lady  —  pushed  to  a  degree  of  fervor  which  I  might 
almost  call  fanaticism — would  be  to  her  an  infallible 
preservative  ? 

So  much  for  her.  But  it  is  not,  I  see,  for  her  tran- 
quillity, it  is  mine  for  which  your  friendship  is  con- 
cerned ;  if  Pygmalion  had  not  succeeded  in  giving  life 


21 2  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

to  his  statue,  a  pretty  life  his  love  would  have  made 
him! 

To  your  charitable  solicitude  I  must  answer,  (1)  by 
asserting  my  principles  (though  the  word  and  the  thing 
are  utterly  out  of  date)  ;  (2)  by  a  certain  stupid  respect 
that  I  feel  for  conjugal  loyalty ;  (3)  by  the  natural 
Ijreoccupation  which  the  serious  public  enterprise  I  am 
about  to  undertake  must  necessarily  give  to  my  mind 
and  imagination.  I  must  also  tell  you  that  I  belong, 
if  not  by  spiritual  height,  at  least  by  all  the  tendencies 
of  my  mind  and  character,  to  that  strong  and  serious 
school  of  artists  of  another  age  who,  finding  that  art 
is  long  and  life  is  short  —  ars  longa  et  vita  brevis  — 
did  not  commit  the  mistake  of  wasting  their  time  and 
lessening  their  powers  of  creation  by  silly  and  insipid 
intrigues. 

But  I  have  a  better  reason  still  to  offer  you.  As 
Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  has  told  you  of  the  really 
romantic  incidents  of  my  first  meeting  with  his  wife, 
you  know  already  that  a  memory  was  the  cause  of  my 
studying  her  as  a  model.  Well,  that  memory,  while  it 
attracted  me  to  the  beautiful  countess,  is  the  strongest 
of  all  reasons  to  keep  me  from  her.  This  appears  to 
you,  I  am  sure,  sufficiently  enigmatical  and  far-fetched ; 
but  wait  till  I  explain  it. 

If  you  had  not  thought  proper  to  break  the  thread 
of  our  intercourse,  I  should  not  to-day  be  obliged  to 
take  up  the  arrears  of  our  confidence  ;  as  it  is,  my  dear 
boy,  you  must  now  take  your  part  in  my  past  history 
and  listen  to  me  bravely. 

In  1835,  the  last  year  of  my  stay  in  Rome,  I  became 
quite  intimate  with  a  comrade  in  the  Academy  named 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  213 

Desroziers.  Hfe  was  a  musician  and  a  man  of  dis- 
tinguished and  very  observing  mind,  who  would  prob- 
ably have  gone  far  in  bis  art  if  malarial  fever  had 
not  put  an  end  to  him  the  following  year.  Suddenly 
the  idea  took  possession  of  us  to  go  to  Sicily,  one  of 
the  excursions  permitted  by  the  rules  of  the  school ; 
but  as  we  were  radically  *'  dry,"  as  they  say,  we  walked 
about  Rome  for  some  time  endeavoring  to  find  some 
means  of  recruiting  our  finances.  On  one  of  these 
occasions  we  happened  to  pass  before  the  Palazzo 
Braschi.  Its  wide-open  doors  gave  access  to  the  pass- 
ing and  repassing  of  a  crowd  of  persons  of  all  sorts. 

'*  Parbleu  !  "  exclaimed  Desroziers, ''  here 's  the  very 
thing  for  us." 

And  without  explaining  his  words  or  where  he  was 
taking  me,  he  made  me  follow  the  crowd  and  enter  the 
palace. 

After  mounting  a  magnificent  marble  staircase  and 
crossing  a  very  long  suite  of  apartments  rather  poorly 
furnished,  —  which  is  customary  in  Italian  palaces,  all 
their  luxury  being  put  into  ceilings,  statues,  paintings, 
and  other  objects  of  art,  —  we  reached  a  room  that  was 
wholly  hung  with  black  and  lighted  by  quantities  of 
tapers.  It  was,  of  course,  a  chamhre-ardente.  In  the 
middle  of  it  on  a  raised  platform  surmounted  by  a 
baldaquin,  lay  a  thing^  the  most  hideous  and  grotesque 
thing  you  can  possibly  conceive.  Imagine  a  little  old 
man  whose  hands  and  face  had  reached  such  a  stage 
of  emaciation  that  a  mummy  would  have  seemed  to 
you  in  comparison  plump  and  comely. 

Clothed  in  black  satin  breeches,  a  violet  velvet  coat 
cut  a  la  Frangaise,  a  white  waistcoat  embroidered  in 


214  The  Deputy  of  Areis. 

gold,  from  which  issued  an  enormous  shirt- frill  of 
point  d'Angleterre,  this  skeleton  had  cheeks  covered 
with  a  thick  layer  of  rouge  which  heightened  still 
further  the  parchment  tones  of  the  rest  of  his  skin. 
Upon  his  head  was  a  blond  wig  frizzed  into  innumer- 
able little  curls,  surmounted  by  an  immense  plumed 
hat  jauntily  perched  to  one  side  in  a  manner  which 
irresistibly  provoked  the  laughter  of  even  the  most 
respectful  visitors. 

After  one  glance  given  to  this  ridiculous  and  lamen- 
table exhibition,  —  an  obligatory  part  of  all  funerals, 
according  to  the  etiquette  of  the  Roman  aristocracy,  — 
Desroziers  exclaimed:  "There's  the  end  ;  now  come 
and  see  the  beginning." 

Not  replying  to  any  of  my  questions,  because  he  was 
arranging  a  dramatic  effect,  he  took  me  to  the  Albani 
gallery  and  placed  me  before  a  statue  representing 
Adonis  stretched  on  a  lion's  skin. 

"  What  do  you  think  of  that?  "  he  said. 

"What?"  I  replied  at  a  first  glance;  "why,  it  is 
as  fine  as  an  antique." 

' '  Antique  as  much  as  I  am !  "  replied  Desroziers. 
"  It  is  a  portrait  in  youth  of  that  wizened  old  being 
we  have  just  seen  dead." 

"  Antique  or  not,  it  is  a  masterpiece,"  I  said. 
"  But  how  is  all  this  beauty,  or  its  hideous  caricature, 
to  get  us  to  Sicily?     That  is  the  question." 

"  I '11  tell  you,"  replied  Desroziers.  "  I  know  the 
family  of  that  old  scarecrow.  His  niece  married  the 
Comte  de  Lanty,  and  they  have  long  wanted  to  buy 
this  statue  which  the  Albani  museum  won't  give  up  at 
any  price.    They  have  tried  to  have  it  copied,  but  they 


The  Deputy  of  Arch.  215 

never  got  anytliing  satisfactory.  Now,  you  know  the 
director  of  tlie  museum  well.  Get  him  to  let  you  make 
a  copy  of  it.  I  give  music-lessons  to  the  Comte  de 
Lanty's  daughter,  Mademoiselle  Marianina,  and  I'll 
talk  of  your  copy.  If  you  succeed,  as  of  course  you 
will,  the  count  will  buy  it  and  pay  you  forty  times  the 
cost  of  a  trip  to  Sicily." 

Two  days  later  I  began  the  work,  and,  as  it  suited 
my  taste,  I  worked  so  hotly  at  it  that  by  the  end  of 
three  weeks  the  Lanty  family,  escorted  by  Desroziers, 
came  to  see  my  copy.  The  count,  who  seemed  to  me 
a  good  connoisseur,  declared  himself  satisfied  with  the 
work,  and  bought  it.  Mademoiselle  Marianina,  who 
was  the  heiress  and  favorite  of  her  grand-uncle,  was 
particularly  delighted  with  it.  Marianina  was  then 
about  twenty-one  years  old,  and  I  shall  not  make  you 
her  portrait  because  you  know  Madame  de  I'Estorade, 
to  whom  her  likeness  is  extraordinary.  Already  an 
accomplished  musician,  this  charming  girl  had  a  re- 
markable inclination  for  all  the  arts.  Coming  from 
time  to  time  to  my  studio  to  watch  the  completion  of 
the  statue,  a  taste  for  sculpture  seized  her,  as  it  did 
the  Princesse  Marie  d'Orleans,  and  until  the  departure 
of  the  family,  which  took  place  a  few  months  before  I 
myself  left  Rome,  Mademoiselle  de  Lanty  took  lessons 
from  me  in  modelling. 

I  never  dreamed  of  being  another  Saint-Preux  or 
Abelard,  but  I  must  own  that  I  found  rare  happiness 
in  imparting  my  knowledge.  Marianina  was  so  gay 
and  happy,  her  judgment  of  art  so  sound,  her  voice, 
when  she  sang,  so  stirred  my  heart,  that  had  it  not 
been  for  her  vast  fortune,  which  kept  me  at  a  distance, 


216  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

I  should  have  run  great  danger  to  my  peace  of  mind. 
Admitted  into  the  household  on  the  footing  of  a  certain 
familiarity,  I  could  see  that  my  beautiful  pupil  took 
pleasure  in  our  intercourse,  and  when  the  family  re- 
turned to  Paris  she  expressed  the  utmost  regret  at 
leaving  Rome ;  I  even  fancied,  God  forgive  me,  that  I 
saw  something  like  a  tear  in  her  eye  when  we  parted. 

On  my  return  to  Paris,  some  months  later,  my  first 
visit  was  to  the  hotel  de  Lanty.  Marianina  was  too 
well  bred  and  too  kind  at  heart  to  be  discourteous  to 
any  one,  but  I  felt  at  once  that  a  cold  restrained 
manner  was  substituted  for  the  gracious  friendliness  of 
the  past.  It  seemed  to  me  probable  that  her  evident 
liking,  I  will  not  say  for  me  personally,  but  for  my 
conversation  and  acquirements,  had  been  noticed  by 
her  parents,  who  had  doubtless  taught  her  a  lesson  ;  in 
fact,  the  stiff  and  forbidding  manner  of  Monsieur  and 
Madame  de  Lanty  left  me  no  other  supposition. 

Naturally,  I  did  not  call  again ;  but  a  few  months 
later,  when  I  exhibited  my  Pandora  in  the  salon  of 
1837,  I  one  day  saw  the  whole  Lanty  family  approach 
it.  The  mother  was  on  the  arm  of  Comte  Maxime  de 
Trailles,  a  well-known  lion.  Ml  admirari  is  the  nat- 
ural instinct  of  all  men  of  the  world  ;  so,  after  a  very 
cursory  glance  at  my  work.  Monsieur  de  Trailles  began 
to  find  shocking  faults  in  it,  and  in  so  high  and  clear  a 
voice  that  not  a  word  was  lost  within  a  certain  range. 
Marianina  shrugged  her  shoulders  as  she  listened  to 
this  profound  discourse,  and  when  it  was  ended  she 
said,  — 

"How  fortunate  you  came  with  us!  Without  your 
enlightened  knowledge  I  might,  with  the  rest  of  the 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  217 

good  public,  have  thought  this  statue  admirable.  It 
is  a  pity  the  sculptor  is  not  here  to  learn  his  business 
from  you." 

''  He  is  here,  behind  you,"  said  a  stout  woman  who 
had  once  been  my  landlady,  and  was  standing  near, 
laughing  heartily.  Involuntarily  Marianina  turned ; 
when  she  saw  me  a  vivid  color  came  into  her  cheeks, 
and  I  slipped  away  into  the  crowd.  A  girl  who  took 
my  part  so  warmly,  and  then  showed  such  emotion  on 
being  detected  in  doing  so,  could  not  be  absolutely  in- 
different to  me ;  and  as  on  my  first  visit  I  had  only, 
after  all,  been  coldly  received,  I  decided,  after  ray 
great  success  at  the  Exhibition,  in  consequence  of  which 
I  was  made  a  chevalier  of  the  Legion  of  honor,  to  call 
again  upon  the  Lantys ;  perhaps  my  new  distinctions 
would  procure  me  a  better  reception. 

Monsieur  de  Lanty  received  me  without  rising,  and 
with  the  following  astounding  apostrophe  :  — 

'*  I  think  you  very  courageous,  monsieur,  to  venture 
to  present  yourself  here." 

''  I  have  never  been  received  in  a  manner  that  seemed 
to  require  courage  on  my  part." 

"  You  have  come,  no  doubt,"  continued  Monsieur 
de  Lanty,  *'  in  search  of  your  property  which  you  were 
careless  enough  to  leave  in  our  hands.  I  shall  return 
you  that  article  of  gallantry." 

So  saying,  he  rose  and  took  from  a  drawer  in  his 
secretary  an  elegant  little  portfolio,  which  he  gave  to 
me. 

As  I  looked  at  it  in  a  sort  of  stupefaction,  he  added : 

**Ye8;  I  know  the  letters  are  not  there;  I  presume 
you  will  allow  me  to  keep  them." 


218  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

'  ^  This  portfolio,  the  letters  you  mention  —  all  this 
is  an  enigma  to  me,  monsieur." 

At  this  moment  Madame  de  Lanty  entered  the  room. 

'*  What  do  you  want?  "  said  her  husband,  roughly. 

"I  knew  monsieur  was  here,  and  as  I  feared  some 
painful  explanation,  I  came  to  do  my  duty  as  a  woman, 
and  interpose." 

''You  need  fear  nothing,  madame,"  I  said;  ''evi- 
dently what  is  taking  place  is  the  result  of  some 
misunderstanding." 

"  Ah !  this  is  too  much!  "  cried  Monsieur  de  Lanty, 
reopening  the  drawer  from  which  he  had  taken  the 
portfolio,  and  taking  out  a  packet  of  letters  tied  with 
a  rose-colored  ribbon.  "  I  think  these  will  put  an  end 
to  your  mismider standing  " 

I  looked  at  the  letters  ;  they  were  not  postmarked,  and 
simply  bore  my  name.  Monsieur  Dorlange,  in  a  woman's 
handwriting,  which  was  unknown  to  me. 

"Monsieur,"  I  said,  "you  know  more  than  I  do ; 
you  have  in  your  possession  letters  that  seem  to  belong 
to  me,  but  which  I  have  never  received." 

"Upon  my  word,"  cried  Monsieur  de  Lanty,  "you 
are  an  admirable  comedian ;  I  never  saw  innocence 
better  played." 

"  But,  monsieur,"  I  said,  "  who  wrote  those  letters, 
and  why  are  they  addressed  to  me  ?  " 

"  It  is  useless  to  deny  them,  monsieur,"  said  Madame 
de  Lanty  ;  "  Marian ina  has  confessed  all." 

"  Mademoiselle  Marianina  !  "  I  exclaimed.  "  Then 
the  matter  is  very  simple ;  have  the  goodness  to  bring 
us  together ;  let  me  hear  from  her  lips  the  explanation 
of  this  singular  affair." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  219 

"  The  evasion  is  clever,"  replied  Monsieur  de  Lanty  ; 
'*  but  my  daughter  is  no  longer  here :  she  is  in  a  con- 
vent, forever  sheltered  from  your  intrigues  and  the 
dangers  of  her  own  ridiculous  passion.  If  that  is 
what  you  came  to  know,  all  is  said.  Let  us  part,  for 
my  patience  and  moderation  have  a  limit,  if  your  inso- 
lence has  none." 

''Monsieur!"  I  began,  angrily;  but  Madame  de 
Lanty,  who  was  standing  behind  her  husband,  made 
me  a  gesture  as  if  she  would  fall  upon  her  knees ;  and 
reflecting  that  perhaps  Marianina's  future  depended 
on  the  attitude  I  now  took,  I  controlled  myself  and  left 
the  room  without  further  words. 

The  next  morning,  before  I  was  out  of  bed,  the  Abbd 
Fontanon  was  announced  to  me.  When  he  entered  he 
proved  to  be  a  tall  old  man  with  a  bilious  skin  and 
a  sombre,  stern  expression,  which  he  tried  to  soften 
by  a  specious  manner  and  a  show  of  gentle  but  icy 
obsequiousness. 

''Monsieur,"  he  said,  "Madame  la  Comtesse  de 
Lanty,  whose  confessor  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  re- 
quests me  to  give  you  a  few  explanations,  to  which 
you  have  an  incontestable  right,  as  to  the  scene  that 
took  place  last  evening  between  her  husband  and 
yourself." 

"  1  am  ready  to  listen  to  you,  monsieur,"  I  replied. 

"  Monsieur  de  Lanty,"  continued  the  abbe,  "  is  a 
bad  sleeper ;  and  one  night  last  summer  he  was  awak- 
ened by  the  sound  of  cautious  steps.  He  opened  his 
door,  and  called  out  to  know  who  was  there.  He  was 
not  mistaken  ;  some  one  was  there,  but  did  not  answer, 
and  disappeared  before  Monsieur  de  Lanty  could  obtain 


220  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

a  light.  At  first  it  was  thought  to  be  an  attempt  at 
robbery ;  but  on  further  inquiry  it  appeared  that  a 
gentleman  had  taken  a  room  in  the  neighborhood,  and 
had  frequently  been  seen  in  company  with  Mademoi- 
selle Marianina,  —  in  short,  the  matter  concerned  a 
love  affair  and  not  a  robbery.  Monsieur  de  Lanty  has 
long  watched  his  daughter,  whose  ardent  inclinations 
have  given  him  much  anxiety  ;  you  yourself,  monsieur, 
caused  him  some  uneasiness  in  Rome  —  " 

"Very  needless,  Monsieur  I'abbe,"  I  said,  interrupt- 
ing him. 

"Yes,  I  know  that  your  relations  to  Mademoiselle 
de  Lanty  have  always  been  perfectly  proper  and  be- 
coming. But  since  their  return  to  Paris  another  indi- 
vidual has  occupied  her  mind,  —  a  bold  and  enterprising 
man,  capable  of  risking  everything  to  compromise  and 
thus  win  an  heiress.  Being  taxed  with  having  encour- 
aged this  man  and  allowed  these  nocturnal  interviews, 
Mademoiselle  de  Lanty  at  first  denied  everything. 
Then,  evidently  fearing  that  her  father,  a  violent 
man,  would  take  some  steps  against  her  lover,  she 
threw  herself  at  his  feet  and  admitted  the  visits,  but 
denied  that  the  visitor  was  the  man  her  father  named 
to  her.  At  first  she  refused  obstinately  to  substitute 
another  name  for  the  one  she  disavowed.  After  some 
days  passed  in  this  struggle,  she  finally  confessed  to  her 
mother,  under  a  pledge  of  secrecy,  that  her  father  was 
right  in  his  suspicions,  but  she  dreaded  the  results  to 
the  family  if  she  acknowledged  the  truth  to  him.  The 
man  in  question  was  a  noted  duellist,  and  her  father 
and  brother  would  surely  bring  him  to  account  for  his 
conduct.    It  was  then,  monsieur,  that  the  idea  occurred 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  221 

to  this  imprudent  girl  to  substitute  another  name  for 
that  of  her  real  lover." 

*'  Ah!  I  understand,"  I  said;  "the  name  of  a  no- 
body, an  artist,  a  sculptor,  or  some  insignificant  indi- 
vidual of  that  kind." 

*'You  do  Mademoiselle  de  Lanty  injustice  by  that 
remark,"  replied  the  abbe.  ''What  decided  her  to 
make  your  name  a  refuge  against  the  dangers  she  fore- 
saw was  the  fact  that  Monsieur  de  Lanty  had  formerly 
had  suspicions  about  you,  and  she  thought  that  circum- 
stance gave  color  to  her  statement." 

''  But,  Monsieur  Tabbe,"  I  said,  ''  how  do  you  ex- 
plain those  letters,  that  portfolio,  which  her  father 
produced  yesterday?" 

*'  That  again  was  an  invention  of  Marianina;  and  I 
may  add  that  this  duplicity  assures  me  that  had  she 
remained  in  the  world  her  future  might  have  been 
terrible." 

*'  Am  I  to  suppose  that  this  tale  has  been  told  you 
by  Madame  de  Lanty  ?  " 

'*  Confided  to  me,  monsieur,  yes.  You  yourself  saw 
Madame  de  Lanty's  desire  to  stop  your  explanations 
yesterday,  lest  the  truth  might  appear  to  her  husband. 
I  am  requested  by  her  to  thank  you  for  your  connivance 
—  passive,  of  course  —  in  this  pioas  falsehood.  She 
felt  that  she  could  only  show  her  profound  gratitude 
by  telling  you  the  whole  truth  and  relying  upon  your 
discretion." 

*' Where  is  Mademoiselle  Marianina?" 

'*  As  Monsieur  de  Lanty  told  you,  in  a  convent  in 
Italy.  To  avoid  scandal,  it  was  thought  best  to  send 
her  to  some  safe  retreat.  Her  own  conduct  will  decide 
her  future.'* 


222  The  Beputy  of  Arcis. 

Now  what  do  you  think  of  that  history?  Does  it 
not  seem  to  you  very  improbable?  Here  are  two  ex- 
planations which  have  each  come  into  my  mind  with 
the  force  of  a  conviction.  First,  Marianina's  brother 
has  just  married  into  a  grand-ducal  family  of  Ger- 
many. Immense  sacrifices  must  have  been  required  of 
the  de  Lanty  family  to  make  such  an  alliance.  Was 
Marianina's  dot^  and  the  fortune  she  inherited  from 
that  old  grand-uncle,  required  to  pay  the  costs  of  that 
princely  union?  Secondly,  did  Marianina  really  feel 
an  attachment  for  me?  And  did  she,  in  a  girlish  way, 
express  it  in  those  letters  which  she  never  sent?  To 
punish  her,  had  her  parents  sent  her  to  a  convent? 
And  to  disgust  me,  and  throw  me  off  the  track,  had  the 
mother  invented  this  history  of  another  love  in  which 
she  seemed  to  make  me  play  so  mortifying  a  part? 

I  may  add  that  the  intervention  of  the  Abbe  Fonta- 
non  authorizes  such  an  interpretation.  I  have  made 
inquiries  about  him,  and  I  find  he  is  one  of  those  mis- 
chievous priests  who  worm  themselves  into  the  confi- 
dence of  families  for  their  own  ends ;  he  has  already 
destroyed  the  harmony  of  one  home,  —  that  of  Mon- 
sieur de  Granville,  attorney -general  of  the  royal  court 
of  Paris  under  the  Restoration. 

As  to  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  these  suppositions  I 
know  nothing,  and,  in  all  probability,  shall  continue  to 
know  nothing.  But,  as  you  can  easily  understand,  the 
thought  of  Marianina  is  a  luminous  point  to  which 
my  eye  is  forever  attracted.  Shall  1  love  her?  Shall 
I  hate  her  and  despise  her  ?  That  is  the  question  per- 
petually in  ray  mind.  Uncertainty  of  that  kind  is  far 
more  certain  to  fix  a  woman  in  a  man's  soul  than  to 
dislodgre  her. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  223 

Well,  to  sum  up  in  two  brief  sentences  my  reply 
to  your  warnings :  As  for  the  opinion  of  Monsieur 
Bixiou,  I  care  as  little  for  it  as  for  last  year's  roses; 
and  as  for  that  other  danger  which  you  fear,  I  cannot 
tell  you  whether  I  love  Marianina  or  not,  but  this  I 
know,  I  do  not  love  Madame  de  I'P^storade.  That,  I 
think,  is  giving  you  a  plain  and  honest  answer.  And 
now,  let  us  leave  our  master  the  Future  to  do  what  he 
likes. 


XI.     THE   COMTESSE   DE    L*ESTORADE    TO    MADAME    OCTAVE 
DE    CAMPS. 

Paris,  May,  1839. 

Monsieur  Dorlange  came  last  evening  to  take  leave 
of  us.  He  starts  to-day  for  Arcis-sur-Aube,  where  the 
ceremony  of  inaugurating  his  statue  takes  place.  That 
is  also  the  place  selected  by  the  Opposition  journals 
for  his  candidacy.  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  declares 
that  the  locality  could  not  have  been  worse  chosen,  and 
that  it  leaves  his  election  without  a  chance. 

Monsieur  Dorlange  paid  his  visit  early.  I  was  alone. 
Monsieur  de  TP^storade  was  dining  with  the  Minister  of 
the  Interior,  and  the  children  were  in  bed.  The  con- 
versation interrupted  by  Madame  de  la  Bastie  could 
now  be  renewed,  and  I  was  about  to  ask  him  to  con- 
tinue the  history,  of  which  he  had  only  told  me  the  last 
words,  when  our  old  Lucas  brought  me  a  letter.  It 
was  from  my  Armand,  to  let  me  know  that  he  had  been 
ill  since  morning,  and  was  then  in  the  infirmary. 

**  Order  the  carriage,"  I  said  to  Lucas,  in  a  state  of 
agitation  you  can  easily  conceive. 


224  The  Depiity  of  Arcis. 

"But,  madame,"  replied  Lucas,  "monsieur  has 
ordered  the  carriage  to  fetch  him  at  half-past  nine 
o'clock  and  Tony  has  already  started." 

"  Then  send  for  a  cab." 

''  I  don't  know  that  I  can  find  one,"  said  our  old 
servant,  who  is  a  man  of  difficulties;  "it  is  beginning 
to  rain." 

Without  noticing  that  remark  and  without  thinking 
of  Monsieur  Dorlange,  I  went  hastily  to  ray  room  to 
put  on  my  bonnet  and  shawl.  That  done,  1  returned 
to  the  salon,  where  my  visitor  still  remained. 

"  You  must  excuse  me,  monsieur,"  1  said  to  him, 
"  for  leaving  you  so  abruptly.  I  must  hasten  to  the 
Henri  IV.  College.  I  could  not  possibly  pass  a  night  in 
the  dreadful  anxiety  my  son's  letter  has  caused  me  ;  he 
tells  me  he  has  been  ill  since  morning  in  the  infirmary." 

"  But,"  replied  Monsieur  Dorlange,  "  surely  you  are 
not  going  alone  in  a  hired  carriage  to  that  lonely 
quarter  ?  ", 

"  Lucas  will  go  with  me." 

At  that  moment  Lucas  returned  ;  his  prediction  was 
realized  ;  there  was  not  a  coach  on  the  stand ;  it  was 
raining  in  torrents.  Time  was  passing  ;  already  it  was 
almost  too  late  to  enter  the  school,  where  masters  and 
pupils  go  to  bed  at  nine  o'clock. 

*'  Put  on  thick  shoes,"  I  said  to  Lucas,  "  and  come 
with  me  on  foot." 

Instantly  I  saw  his  face  lengthen.  He  is  no  longer 
young  and  loves  his  ease ;  moreover,  he  complains 
every  winter  of  rheumatism.  He  made  various  objec- 
tions, —  that  it  was  very  late  ;  that  we  should  "  revolu- 
tionize "   the   school ;  I   should   take  cold ;  Monsieur 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  225 

Armand  could  not  be  very  ill  if  he  wrote  himself;  in 
short,  it  was  clear  that  my  plan  of  campaign  did  not 
suit  my  old  retainer. 

Monsieur  Dorlange  very  obligingly  offered  to  go  him- 
self in  my  place  and  bring  me  word  about  Armand  ;  but 
that  did  not  suit  me  at  all ;  I  felt  that  I  must  see  for 
myself.      Having  thanked  him,  I  said  to  Lucas  in  a 
tone  of  authority  :  — 

"Get  ready  at  once,  for  one  thing  is  true  in  your 
remarks  :  it  is  getting  late." 

Seeing  himself  driven  into  a  corner,  Lucas  raised 
the  standard  of  revolt. 

''It  is  not  possible  that  madame  should  go  out  in 
such  weather ;  and  I  don't  want  monsieur  to  scold  me 
for  giving  in  to  such  a  singular  idea." 

'*  Then  you  do  not  intend  to  obey  me?  " 

*'  Madame  knows  very  well  that  for  anything  reason- 
able I  would  do  what  she  told  me  if  I  had  to  go  through 
fire  to  obey  her." 

''  Ileat  is  good  for  rheumatism,  but  rain  is  not,"  I 
said ;  then,  turning  to  Monsieur  Dorlange,  I  added : 
*'  As  you  were  so  kind  as  to  offer  to  do  this  errand 
alone,  may  I  ask  you  to  give  me  your  arm  and  come 
with  me  ?  " 

''  I  am  like  Lucas,"  he  said,  ''  I  do  not  think  this  ex- 
cursion absolutely  necessary ;  but  as  I  am  not  afraid 
of  being  scolded  by  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  I  shall 
have  the  honor  to  accompany  you." 

We  started.  The  weather  was  frightful ;  we  had 
hardly  gone  fifty  steps  before  we  were  soaked  in  spite 
of  Lucas's  huge  umbrella,  with  which  Monsieur  Dor- 
lange sheltered  me   at  his  own  expense.     Luckily  a 

13 


226  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

coach  happened  to  pass;  Monsieur  Dorlange  hailed 
the  driver ;  it  was  empty.  Of  course  I  could  not  tell 
my  companion  that  he  was  not  to  get  into  it ;  such  dis- 
trust was  extremely  unbecoming  and  not  for  me  to 
show.  But  you  know,  my  dear  friend,  that  showers  of 
rain  have  helped  lovers  from  the  days  of  Dido  down. 
However,  Monsieur  Dorlange  said  nothing;  he  saw  my 
anxiety  and  he  had  the  good  taste  not  to  attempt  con- 
versation, breaking  the  silence  only  from  time  to  time 
with  casual  remarks.  When  we  reached  the  school, 
after  getting  out  of  the  carriage  to  give  me  his  hand  he 
saw  for  himself  that  he  must  not  enter  the  house  and 
he  therefore  got  back  into  the  carriage  to  await  my 
return. 

Well,  I  found  Monsieur  Armand  had  hoaxed  me. 
His  illness  reduced  itself  to  a  headache,  which  de- 
parted soon  after  he  had  written  to  me.  The  doctor, 
for  the  sake  of  ordering  something,  had  told  him  to 
take  an  infusion  of  linden-leaves,  telling  him  that  the 
next  day  he  could  go  back  to  his  studies.  I  had  taken 
a  club  to  kill  a  flea,  and  committed  all  sorts  of  enormi- 
ties to  get  there  at  an  hour  when  the  entire  establish- 
ment were  going  to  bed,  only  to  find  my  young 
gentleman  perfectly  well  and  playing  chess  with  one 
of  the  nurses. 

On  leaving  the  school  I  found  the  rain  liad  ceased 
and  the  moon  was  shining  brightly.  My  heart  was 
full ;  the  reaction  from  my  great  anxiety  had  set  in 
and  I  felt  a  need  of  breathing  the  fresh  air.  I  there- 
fore proposed  to  Monsieur  Dorlange  to  dismiss  the 
coach  and  return  on  foot. 

Here  was  an  opportunity  for  him  to  make  me  that 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  227 

long-delayed  explanation ;  but  Monsieur  Dorlange 
seemed  so  little  inclined  to  take  advantage  of  it  that, 
using  Master  Armand's  freak  as  a  text,  he  read  me  a 
lecture  on  the  danger  of  spoiling  children :  a  subject 
which  was  not  at  all  agreeable  to  me,  as  he  must  have 
perceived  from  the  rather  stiff  manner  with  which  I 
listened  to  him.  Come,  thought  I,  I  must  and  will  get 
to  the  bottom  of  this  history ;  it  is  like  the  tale  of 
Sancho's  herdsman,  which  had  the  faculty  of  never 
getting  told.  So,  cutting  short  my  companion's  theories 
of  education,  I  said  distinctly :  — 

'''  This  is  a  very  good  time,  I  think,  to  continue  the 
confidence  you  were  about  to  make  to  me.  Here  we 
are  sure  of  no  interruption." 

**  I  am  afraid  I  shall  prove  a  poor  story-teller," 
replied  Monsieur  Dorlange.  "  I  have  spent  all  my  fire 
this  very  day  in  telling  that  tale  to  Marie-Gaston." 

''  That,"  I  answered  laughing,  "is  against  your  own 
theory  of  secrecy,  in  which  a  third  party  is  one  too 
many." 

'*0h,  Marie-Gaston  and  I  count  for  one  only.  Be- 
sides, I  had  to  reply  to  liis  odd  ideas  about  you  and 
me." 

*' What  about  me?" 

'*  Well,  he  imagined  that  in  looking  at  the'  sun  I 
should  be  dazzled  by  its  rays." 

"  Which  means,  speaking  less  metaphorically  —  ?  " 

"  That,  in  view  of  the  singularities  which  accom- 
panied my  first  knowledge  of  you  and  led  me  to  the 
honor  of  your  acquaintance,  I  might  expose  myself  to 
the  danger,  madame,  of  not  retaining  my  reason  and 
self-possession." 


228  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

'*  And  your  history  refutes  this  fear  in  the  mind  of 
Monsieur  Marie-Gaston  ?  " 

*'  You  shall  judge." 

And  then,  without  further  preamble,  he  told  me  a  long 
tale  which  I  need  not  repeat  here ;  the  gist  of  it  is, 
however,  that  Monsieur  Dorlange  is  in  love  with  a 
woman  who  posed  in  his  imagination  for  Saint-Ursula  ; 
but  as  this  woman  appears  to  be  forever  lost  to  him  it 
did  not  seem  to  me  impossible  that  in  the  long  run  he 
might  transfer  his  sentiments  for  her  memory  to  me. 
When  he  had  finished  his  tale  he  asked  if  I  did  not 
think  it  a  victorious  answer  to  the  ridiculous  fears  of 
our  friend. 

"Modesty,"  I  replied,  "obliges  me  to  share  your 
security ;  but  they  say  that  in  the  army  shots  fre- 
quently ricochet  and  kill  their  victims." 

"Then  you  think  me  capable  of  the  impertinence 
Marie-Gaston  is  good  enough  to  suspect  in  me?" 

"  I  don't  know  about  its  being  an  impertinence,"  I 
said  stiffly,  "  but  if  such  a  fancy  came  into  your  mind, 
I  should  think  you  very  much  to  be  pitied." 

His  answer  was  vehement. 

"  Madame,"  he  said,  "  you  will  not  have  to  pity  me. 
In  my  opinion,  first  love  is  a  vaccination  which  pro- 
tects us  from  a  second." 

The  conversation  stopped  there.  We  had  now 
reached  my  own  door,  and  I  invited  Monsieur  Dorlange 
to  come  in.  He  accepted  my  politeness,  remarking 
that  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  had  probably  returned  and 
he  could  thus  take  leave  of  him. 

My  husband  was  at  home.  I  don't  know  whether 
Lucas,  forestalling  the  rebuke  I  intended  to  give  him, 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  229 

had  made  out  a  story  to  excuse  himself,  or  whether 
Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  for  the  first  time  in  his  life 
felt,  in  view  of  my  maternal  escapade,  a  movement  of 
jealousy.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  his  manner  of 
receiving  me  was  curt ;  he  called  it  an  unheard-of  thing 
to  go  out  at  such  an  hour,  in  such  weather,  to  see  a 
boy  who  proved,  by  announcing  his  own  illness,  that 
it  was  nothing  serious.  After  letting  him  talk  in  this 
discourteous  way  for  some  little  time,  I  thought  it  was 
time  to  put  an  end  to  the  scene,  so  I  said  in  a  rather 
peremptory  tone :  — 

*'  As  I  wanted  to  sleep  at  night,  I  went  to  the  school 
in  a  pelting  rain ;  I  came  back  by  moonlight ;  and  I 
beg  you  to  remark  that  monsieur,  who  was  so  good  as 
to  escort  me,  has  come  upstairs  to  bid  you  good-bye, 
because  he  leaves  Paris  to-morrow  morning." 

I  have  habitually  enough  power  over  Monsieur  de 
I'P^storade  to  make  this  call  to  order  effective ;  but  I 
saw  that  my  husband  was  displeased,  and  that  instead 
of  having  made  Monsieur  Dorlange  an  easy  diversion, 
I  had  called  down  upon  his  head  the  ill-humor  of  my 
ogre,  who  instantly  turned  upon  him. 

After  telling  him  that  much  had  been  said  about  his 
candidacy  during  dinner  at  the  ministry.  Monsieur  de 
rp^storade  began  to  show  him  all  the  reasons  why  he 
might  expect  an  overwhelming  defeat ;  namely,  that 
Arcis-sur-Aube  was  one  of  the  boroughs  where  the 
administration  felt  itself  most  secure ;  that  a  man  of 
extraordinary  political  ability  had  alread}^  been  sent 
there  to  manipulate  the  election,  and  had  made  a  first 
report  giving  triumphant  news  of  his  success.  These 
were  only  generalities,  to  which  Monsieur  Dorlange 


230  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

replied  with  modesty,  but  also  with  the  air  of  a  man 
who  had  resolved  to  take  his  chances  against  all 
risks  to  which  his  election  might  be  exposed.  Mon- 
sieur de  I'Estorade  then  produced  a  final  shaft  which, 
under  the  circumstances,  w^as  calculated  to  have  a 
marvellous  effect,  because  it  attacked  both  the  candi- 
date and  his  private  life. 

"Listen  to  me,  my  dear  monsieur,"  said  my  hus- 
band, "when  a  man  starts  on  an  electoral  career  he 
must  remember  that  he  stakes  everything ;  his  public 
life  and  also  his  private  life.  Your  adversaries  will 
ransack  your  present  and  your  past  with  a  pitiless 
hand,  and  sorrow  to  him  who  has  any  dark  spots  to 
hide.  Now  I  ought  not  to  conceal  from  you  that 
to-night,  at  the  ministers',  much  Was  said  about  a  little 
scandal  which,  while  it  may  be  venial  in  the  life  of  an 
artist,  takes  proportions  altogether  more  serious  in 
that  of  the  people's  representative.  You  understand 
me,  of  course.  I  refer  to  that  handsome  Italian 
woman  whom  you  have  in  your  house.  Take  care ; 
some  puritanical  elector  whose  own  morality  may  be 
more  or  less  problematical,  is  likely  to  call  you  to 
account  for  her  presence." 

The  reply  made  by  Monsieur  Dorlange  was  very 
dignified. 

"  To  those,"  he  said,  "  who  may  arraign  me  on  that 
detail  of  my  private  life  I  wish  but  one  thing  —  that 
they  may  have  nothing  worse  upon  their  consciences. 
If  I  had  not  already  wearied  madame  on  our  way  from 
the  school  with  an  interminable  story,  I  would  tell  you 
the  facts  relating  to  my  handsome  Italian,  and  you 
would  see.  Monsieur  le  comte,  that  her  presence  in  my 
house  reflects  in  no  way  upon  me." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  231 

*'But,"  returned  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  softening 
liis  tone,  "  you  take  my  observation  rather  too  seri- 
ously. As  I  said  just  now,  an  artist  may  have  a  hand- 
some model  in  liis  house  —  that  may  be  natural  enough 
—  but  she  is  not  a  usual  piece  of  furniture  in  that  of 
a  legislator." 

''No,  what  seems  more  to  their  liking,"  replied 
Monsieur  Dorlange,  with  some  heat,  ''  is  the  good  they 
can  get  for  themselves  out  of  a  calumny  accepted 
eagerly  and  without  examination.  However,  far  from 
dreading  inquiry  on  the  subject  you  mention,  I  desire 
it,  and  the  ministry  will  do  me  a  great  service  if  it 
will  employ  the  extremely  able  political  personage  you 
say  they  have  put  upon  my  path  to  bring  that  delicate 
question  before  the  electors." 

"Do  you  really  start  to-morrow ?"  asked  Monsieur 
de  TEstorade,  finding  that  he  had  started  a  subject 
which  not  only  did  not  confound  Monsieur  Dorlange, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  gave  him  the  opportunity  to  reply 
with  a  certain  hauteur  of  tone  and  speech. 

"  Yes,  and  very  early  too ;  so  that  I  must  now  take 
leave  of  you,  having  certain  preparations  still  to 
make." 

So  saying.  Monsieur  Dorlange  rose,  and  after  mak- 
ing me  a  rather  ceremonious  bow  and  not  bestowing 
his  hand  on  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  who,  in  turn,  did 
not  hold  out  his  own,  he  left  the  room. 

''What  was  the  matter  with  Armand?"  asked  my 
husband,  as  if  to  avoid  any  other  explanation. 

"  Never  mind  Armand,"  I  said,  "  it  is  far  more  inter- 
esting to  know  what  is  the  matter  with  you  ;  for  never 
did  I  see  you  so  out  of  tune,  so  sharp  and  uncivil." 


232  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

"  What !  because  I  told  a  ridiculous  candidate  that 
he  would  have  to  go  into  mourning  for  his  reputation?  " 

' '  In  the  first  place,  that  was  not  complimentary ;  and 
in  any  case  the  moment  was  ill-chosen  with  a  man  on 
whom  my  maternal  anxiety  had  just  imposed  a  disagree- 
able service.'* 

"  T  don't  like  meddlers,"  retorted  Monsieur  de 
I'Estorade,  raising  his  voice  more  than  I  had  ever 
known  him  do  to  me.  ''  And  after  all,  if  he  had  not 
been  here  to  give  you  his  arm  you  would  not  have 
gone." 

''  You  are  mistaken  ;  I  should  have  gone  alone  ;  for 
your  servant,  being  master  here,  refused  to  accompany 
me." 

*'  But  you  must  certainly  admit  that  if  any  acquaint- 
ance had  met  you  at  half-past  nine  o'clock  walking 
arm-in-arm  with  Monsieur  Dorlange  the  thing  would 
have  seemed  to  them,  to  say   the  least,    singular." 

Pretending  to  discover  what  I  had  known  for  the 
last  hour,  I  exclaimed  :  — 

"Is  it  possible  that  after  sixteen  years  of  married 
life  you  do  me  the  honor  to  be  jealous.  Now  I  see 
why,  in  spite  of  your  respect  for  proprieties,  you  spoke 
to  Monsieur  Dorlange  in  ray  presence  of  that  Italian 
woman  whom  people  think  his  mistress;  that  was  a 
nice  little  perfidy  by  which  you  meant  to  ruin  him  in 
my  estimation." 

Thus  exposed  to  the  light,  my  poor  husband  talked 
at  random  for  a  time,  and  finally  had  no  resource  but 
to  ring  for  Lucas  and  lecture  him  severely.  That  ended 
the  explanation. 

What  do  you  think  of  this  conjugal  proceeding,   by 


The  Be'puty  of  Arcis.  233 

which  my  husband,  wishing  to  do  a  man  some  harm  in 
my  estimation,  gave  him  the  opportunity  to  appear  to 
the  utmost  advantage?  For  —  there  was  no  mistaking 
it  —  the  sort  of  emotion  with  which  Monsieur  Dorlange 
repelled  the  charge  was  the  cry  of  a  conscience  at  peace 
with  itself,  and  which  knows  itself  able  to  confound  a 
calumny. 

XII.     DORLANGE    TO    MARIE-GASTON. 

Paris,  May,  1839. 

On  my  return  this  evening  from  the  Estorades,  on 
whom  I  had  paid  my  parting  call,  I  found  your  letter, 
my  dear  friend,  in  which  you  announce  your  coming 
arrival.  I  shall  await  you  to-morrow  during  the  day, 
but  in  the  evening  I  must,  without  further  delay,  start 
for  Arcis-sur-Aube,  where,  in  the  course  of  the  next 
week  my  political  matters  will  come  to  a  head.  What 
particular  hold  I  may  have  on  that  town,  which,  as  it 
appears,  I  have  the  ambition  to  represent,  and  on  what 
co-operation  and  assistance  I  may  rely,  —  in  a  word, 
who  is  making  my  electoral  bed,  —  all  that  I  know  as 
little  about  as  I  did  last  year  when  I  was  told  for  the 
first  time  that  I  must  enter  political  life. 

A  few  days  ago  I  received  a  second  letter  from  my 
father,  postmarked  Paris  this  time,  and  not  Stockholm. 
Judging  by  the  style  of  the  document,  it  would  not 
surprise  me  if  the  ''  eminent  services  "  rendered  in  a 
Northern  court  by  the  mysterious  author  of  my  days 
turned  out  to  be  those  of  a  Prussian  corporal.  It  would 
be  impossible  to  issue  orders  in  a  more  imperative  tone, 
or  to  dwell  more  minutely  on  trifling  particulars. 


234  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

The  note  or  memorandum  was  headed  thus :  Wliat 
my  son  is  to  do. 

On  receipt  of  these  instructions  I  am  to  send  to  its 
destination  the  Saint-Ursula ;  to  superintend  the  pack- 
ing and  boxing  of  it  myself,  and  to  despatch  it  by  the 
fastest  carrier,  to  Mother  Marie-des-Anges,  superior  of 
the  convent  of  the  Ursulines  at  Arcis-sur-Aube. 

The  order  went  on  to  say  that  I  was  to  follow  the 
statue  in  a  few  days,  so  as  to  arrive  at  the  said  Arcis- 
sur-Aube  not  later  than  the  3rd  of  May.  Even  the  inn 
at  which  I  was  to  put  up  was  dictated.  I  would  find 
myself  expected  at  the  H6tel  de  la  Poste ;  so  that  if  I 
happen  to  prefer  any  of  the  others  I  must  resign  that 
fancy.  I  am  also  enjoined  to  publish  in  the  newspapers 
on  the  day  of  my  departure  the  fact  that  I  present  my- 
self as  candidate  in  the  electoral  arrondissement  of 
Arcis-sur-Aube ;  avoiding,  however,  to  make  any  pro- 
fession of  political  faith,  which  would  be  both  useless 
and  premature.  The  document  ended  with  an  in- 
junction which,  while  it  humiliated  me  somewhat,  gave 
me  a  certain  faith  in  what  was  happening.  The 
morning  of  my  departure  from  Paris  I  am  to  go  to  the 
Mongenod  Brothers,  and  draw  for  another  sum  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  francs,  which  is  to  he 
deposited  in  my  name,  "taking  the  utmost  care," 
continued  my  instructions,  "when  transporting  this 
money  from  Paris  to  Arcis-sur-Aube  that  it  be  not  lost 
or  stolen." 

What  do  you  think  of  that  last  clause,  dear  friend? 
That  sum  is  to  he  deposited;  then  it  is  not  already 
there  ;  and  suppose  it  is  not  there?  —  Besides,  what  am 
I  to  do  with  it  in  Arcis  ?    Am  I  to  stand  my  election  on 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  235 

English  principles?  if  so,  a  profession  of  political 
faith  would  certainly  be  useless  and  premature.  As  to 
the  advice  not  to  lose  or  allow  to  be  stolen  the  money 
in  my  possession,  do  you  not  think  that  that  is  making 
me  rather  juvenile?  I  feel  an  inclination  to  suck  my 
thumb  and  cry  for  a  rattle.  However,  I  shall  let  my- 
self go  with  the  current  that  is  bearing  me  along,  and, 
notwithstanding  the  news  of  your  coming  arrival,  after 
paying  a  visit  to  the  Brothers  Mongenod,  I  shall 
valiantly  start,  imagining  the  stupefaction  of  the  good 
people  of  Arcis  on  seeing  another  candidate  pop  up  in 
their  midst  like  a  Jack-in-the-box. 

In  Paris  I  have  already  fired  my  gun.  The 
*'  National  "  has  announced  my  candidacy  in  the  warm- 
est terms ;  and  it  seems  that  this  evening,  at  the  house 
of  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  where  Monsieur  de 
I'Estorade  was  dining,  I  was  discussed  at  some  length. 
I  ought  to  add  that,  according  to  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade, 
the  general  impression  is  that  I  shall  certainly  fail  of 
election.  The  ministry  might  possibly  fear  a  candidate 
from  the  Left  centre ;  but  as  for  the  democratic  party 
to  which  I  am  supposed  to  belong,  they  do  not  even 
allow  that  it  exists.  The  Left  centre  candidate  has, 
however,  been  disposed  of  by  a  ministerial  envoy  of 
the  ablest  and  most  active  description,  and  at  this 
moment,  when  I  set  off  my  small  balloon,  the  election 
of  the  Conservative  candidate  is  pretty  well  assured. 

Among  the  elements  of  my  inevitable  defeat,  Mon- 
sieur de  TEstorade  condescended  to  mention  a  matter 
about  which,  dear  friend,  I  am  rather  surprised  that  you 
have  not  already  lectured  me.  It  is  one  of  those 
agreeable  calumnies  put   in    circulation    in  the  salon 


236  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

Montcornet  by  the  honored  and  honorable  Monsieur 
Bixiou.  The  scandal  concerns  a  handsome  Italian 
woman  whom  I  brought  back  from  Italy  and  with 
whom  I  am  said  to  be  living  in  a  manner  not  canonical. 
Come,  tell  me,  what  hindered  you  from  asking  me  to 
explain  this  important  matter?  Did  you  think  the 
charge  so  shameful  that  you  feared  to  offend  me  by 
alluding  to  it?  Or  have  you  such  confidence  in  my  mo- 
rality that  you  felt  no  need  of  being  strengthened  there- 
in? I  did  not  have  time  to  enter  upon  the  necessary 
explanations  to  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  neither  have  I 
the  leisure  to  write  them  to  you  now.  If  I  speak  of  the 
incident  it  is  for  the  purpose  of  telling  you  of  an 
observation  I  think  I  have  made,  into  the  truth  of 
which  I  want  you  to  examine  after  you  get  here.  It  is 
this :  — 

I  have  an  idea  that  it  would  not  be  agreeable  to 
Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  to  see  me  successful  in  my 
electoral  campaign.  He  never  gave  much  approbation 
to  the  plan ;  in  fact  he  tried  to  dissuade  me,  but 
always  from  the  point  of  view  of  my  own  interests. 
But  to-day,  when  he  finds  that  the  plan  has  taken 
shape,  and  is  actually  discussed  in  the  ministerial 
salon,  my  gentleman  turns  bitter,  and  he  seems  to  feel 
a  malignant  pleasure  in  prophesying  my  defeat  and  in 
producing  this  charming  little  infamy  under  which  he 
expects  to  bury  our  friendship. 

Why  80  !  I  will  tell  you  :  while  feeling  some  grati- 
tude for  the  service  I  did  him,  the  worthy  man  also 
felt  from  the  height  of  his  social  position  a  superior- 
ity over  me  of  which  my  entrance  to  the  Chamber  will 
now  dispossess  him ;  and  it  is  not  agreeable  to  him  to 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  237 

renounce  that  sense  of  superiority.  After  all,  what  is 
an  artist,  even  though  he  may  be  a  man  of  genius, 
compared  to  a  peer  of  France,  a  personage  who  puts 
his  hand  to  the  tiller  and  steers  the  great  political  and 
social  system ;  a  man  who  has  access  to  kings  and 
ministers,  and  who  would  have  the  right  if,  by  impos- 
sibility, such  audacity  should  seize  upon  his  mind,  of 
depositing  a  black  ball  against  the  budget.  Well,  this 
privileged  being  does  not  like  that  I,  and  others  like 
me,  should  assume  the  importance  and  authority  of 
that  insolent  elective  Chamber. 

But  that  is  not  all.  Hereditary  statesmen  have  a 
foolish  pretension:  that  of  being  initiated  by  long 
study  into  a  certain  science  represented  as  arduous, 
which  they  call  the  science  of  public  affairs  and  which 
they  (like  physicians  with  medical  science)  alone  have 
the  right  to  practise.  They  are  not  willing  that  an 
underling,  a  journalist  for  instance,  or  lower  than  that, 
an  artist,  a  cutter  of  images,  should  presume  to  slip  into 
their  domain  and  speak  out  beside  them.  A  poet,  an 
artist,  a  writer  may  be  endowed  with  eminent  faculties, 
they  will  agree  to  that;  the  profession  of  such  men 
presupposes  it ;  but  statesmen  they  cannot  be.  Cha- 
teaubriand himself,  though  better  placed  than  the  rest 
of  us  to  make  himself  a  niche  in  the  Governmental 
Olympus,  was  turned  out  of  doors  one  morning  by  a 
concise  little  note,  signed  Joseph  de  Villele,  dismissing 
him,  as  was  proper,  to  Ren6,  Atala,  and  other  futilities. 

I  know  that  time  and  that  tall  posthumous  daughter 
of  ours  whom  we  call  Posterity  will  some  day  do  good 
justice  and  place  the  right  thing  in  the  right  place. 
Towards  the  end  of  2039,  the  world,  if  it  deigns  to  last 


238  The  Dextuty  of  Arcis. 

till  then,  will  know  what  Canalis,  Joseph  Bridau, 
Daniel  d'Arthez,  Stidmann,  and  Leon  de  Lora  w^ere  in 
1839  ;  whereas  an  infinitely  small  number  of  persons 
will  know  that  during  the  same  period  Monsieur  le 
Comte  de  I'Estorade  was  peer  of  France,  and  president 
of  the  Cour  des  comptes ;  Monsieur  le  Comte  de  Ras- 
tignac  minister  of  Public  Works ;  and  his  brother-in- 
law,  Monsieur  le  Baron  Martial  de  la  Roche-Hugon 
was  a  diplomat  and  Councillor  of  State  employed  on 
more  or  less  extraordinary  service. 

But  while  awaiting  this  tardy  classification  and  dis- 
tant reform,  I  think  it  well  to  let  our  great  governing 
class  know  from  time  to  time  that  unless  their  names 
are  Richelieu  or  Colbert  they  are  liable  to  competition 
and  are  forced  to  accept  it.  So,  with  this  aggravating 
intention  I  begin  to  take  pleasure  in  my  enterprise ; 
and  if  I  am  elected,  I  shall,  unless  you  assure  me  that 
I  have  mistaken  de  I'Estorade's  meaning,  find  occasion 
to  let  him  and  others  of  his  kind  know  that  one  can,  if 
so  disposed,  climb  over  the  walls  of  their  little  parks 
and  strut  as  their  equals. 

But  how  is  it,  my  dear  friend,  that  I  rattle  on  about 
myself  and  say  no  word  about  the  sad  emotions  w^hich 
must  attend  your  return  to  France?  How  can  you 
bear  them?  And  instead  of  endeavoring  to  lay  them 
aside,  I  fear  you  are  willingly  nursing  them  and  taking 
a  melancholy  pleasure  in  their  revival.  Dear  friend,  I 
say  to  you  of  these  great  sorrows  what  I  said  just  now 
of  our  governing  class  —  we  should  consider  them  from 
the  point  of  view  of  time  and  space,  by  the  action  of 
which  the3'  become  after  a  while  imperceptible. 

Do  me  a  favor !     On  arriving  in  Paris  without  hav- 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  239 

ing  a  house  prepared  to  receive  you,  it  would  be  very 
friendly  —  you  would  seem  like  the  man  of  old  times  — 
if  you  would  take  up  your  quarters  with  me,  instead  of 
going  to  Ville  d'Avray,  which,  indeed,  I  think  danger- 
ous and  even  bad  for  you.  Stay  with  me,  and  you 
can  thus  judge  of  my  handsome  housekeeper,  and  you 
will  see  how  much  she  has  been  calumniated  and  mis- 
understood. You  will  also  be  near  to  the  I'Estorades 
in  whom  I  expect  you  to  find  consolations ;  and  be- 
sides, this  act  would  be  a  charming  expiation  for  all 
the  involuntary  wrongs  you  have  done  me.  At  any 
rate,  I  have  given  my  orders,  and  your  room  is  ready 
for  you. 

P.  S.  You  have  not  yet  arrived,  dear  friend,  and  I 
must  close  this  letter,  which  will  be  given  to  you  by 
my  housekeeper  when  you  come  to  my  house,  for  I 
am  certain  that  your  first  visit  will  be  to  me. 

I  went  this  morning  to  the  Mongenods' ;  the  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  francs  were  there,  but  with 
the  accompaniment  of  a  most  extraordinary  circum- 
stance ;  the  money  was  in  the  name  of  the  Comte  de 
Sallenauve,  otherwise  Dorlange,  sculptor,  42  rue  de 
rOuest.  In  spite  of  an  appellation  which  has  never 
been  mine,  the  money  was  mine,  and  was  paid  to  me 
without  the  slightest  hesitation.  I  had  enough  pres- 
ence of  mind  not  to  seem  stupefied  by  my  new  name 
and  title  before  the  cashier ;  but  I  saw  Monsieur  Mon- 
genod  the  elder  in  private,  a  man  who  enjoys  the  high- 
est reputation  at  the  Bank,  and  to  him  I  expressed  my 
astonishment,  asking  for  whatever  explanations  he  was 
able  to  give  me.  He  could  give  none ;  the  money 
came  to  him  through  a  Dutch  banker,  his  correspond- 


240  ^     The  Beauty  of  Areis. 

ent  at  Rotterdam,  and  lie  knew  nothing  beyond  that. 
Ah  gaf  what  does  it  all  mean?  Am  I  to  be  a  noble? 
Has  the  moment  come  for  my  father  to  acknowledge 
me?  I  start  in  a  state  of  agitation  and  of  anxiety 
which  you  can  well  understand.  Until  I  hear  from 
you,  I  shall  address  my  letters  to  you  here.  If  you 
decide  not  to  stay  in  my  house,  let  me  know  your 
address  at  once.  Say  nothing  of  what  I  have  now 
told  you  to  the  I'Estorades;  let  it  remain  secret 
between  us. 


XIII.     DORLANGE   TO    MARIE-GASTON. 

Arcis-sur-aube,  May  3, 1839. 

Dear  friend,  —  Last  evening,  before  Maitre  Achille 
Pigoult,  notary  of  this  place,  the  burial  of  Charles 
Dorlange  took  place,  —  that  individual  issuing  to  the 
world,  like  a  butterfly  from  a  grub,  under  the  name 
and  estate  of  Charles  de  Sallenauve,  son  of  Frangois- 
Henri-Pantaleon  Dumirail,  Marquis  de  Sallenauve. 
Here  follows  the  tale  of  certain  facts  which  preceded 
this  brilliant  transformation. 

Leaving  Paris  on  the  evening  of  May  1st,  I  arrived 
at  Arcis,  according  to  my  father's  directions,  on  the 
following  day.  You  can  believe  my  surprise  when  I 
saw  in  the  street  where  the  diligence  stopped  the  elu- 
sive Jacques  Bricheteau,  whom  I  had  not  seen  since 
our  singular  meeting  on  the  lie  Saint-Louis.  This  time 
I  beheld  him,  instead  of  behaving  like  the  dog  of  Jean 
de  Nivelle,  come  towards  me  with  a  smile  upon  his 
lips,  holding  out  his  hand  and  saying  :  — 

''  At  last,  my  dear  monsieur,  we  are  almost  at  the 


The  Bepidy  of  Arcis,  241 

end  of  all  our  mysteries,  and  soon,  I  hope,  you  will  see 
that  you  have  no  cause  to  complain  of  me.  Have  you 
brought  the  money?  " 

*'  Yes,"  I  replied,  *'  neither  lost  nor  stolen."  And  I 
drew  from  my  pocket  a  wallet  containing  the  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  francs  in  bank  notes. 

**  Very  good!"  said  Jacques  Bricheteau.  ''Now 
let  us  go  to  the  H(>tel  de  la  Poste ;  no  doubt  you  know 
who  awaits  you  there." 

'*  No,  indeed  I  do  not,"  I  replied. 

"  You  must  have  remarked  the  name  and  title  under 
which  that  money  was  paid  to  you  ?  " 

''Certainly;  that  strange  circumstance  struck  me 
forcibly,  and  has,  I  must  own,  stirred  my  imagination." 

"  Well,  we  shall  now  completely  lift  the  veil,  one 
corner  of  which  we  were  careful  to  raise  at  first,  so 
that  you  might  not  come  too  abruptly  to  the  great  and 
fortunate  event  that  is  now  before  you." 

"  Am  I  to  see  my  father?  " 

"Yes,"  replied  Jacques  Bricheteau;  "your  father 
is  awaiting  you ;  but  I  must  warn  you  against  a  prob- 
able cloud  on  his  manner  of  receiving  you.  The 
marquis  has  suffered  much ;  the  court  life  which  he 
has  always  led  has  trained  him  to  show  no  outward 
emotions ;  besides,  he  has  a  horror  of  everything  bour- 
geois. You  must  not  be  surprised,  therefore,  at  the 
cold  and  dignified  reception  he  will  probably  give  you  ; 
at  heart,  he  is  good  and  kind,  and  you  will  appreciate 
him  better  when  you  know  him." 

"  Here,"  thought  I,  "  are  very  comforting  assurances, 
and  as  I  myself  am  not  very  ardently  disposed,  I  foresee 
that  this  interview  will  be  at  some  degrees  below  zero." 

10 


242  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

EnteriDg  the  room  where  the  marquis  awaited  me,  I 
saw  a  very  tall, very  thin,  and  very  bald  man  seated  at  a 
table  on  which  he  was  arranging  some  papers.  At  the 
noise  we  made  in  opening  the  door,  he  pushed  his 
spectacles  to  his  forehead,  rested  both  hands  on  the 
arms  of  his  chair,  and  awaited  us. 

"Monsieur  le  Comte  de  Sallenauve,"  said  Jacques 
Bricheteau,  announcing  me  with  all  the  solemnity  a 
chamberlain  ushering  in  an  ambassador  might  have 
shown. 

The  sight  of  the  man  who  had  given  me  life  melted 
the  ice  within  me ;  advancing  towards  him  eagerly,  I 
felt  the  tears  coming  into  my  eyes.  He  did  not  rise. 
On  his  face,  which  bore  the  remarkable  distinction  that 
used  to  be  called  the  "  grand  air,"  there  was  not  the 
slightest  trace  of  emotion ;  he  contented  himself  with 
holding  out  his  hand  and  softly  pressing  mine  ;  then  he 
said  :  — 

''  Take  a  seat,  monsieur ;  I  have  not  the  right  as  yet 
to  call  you  my  son." 

When  Jacques  Bricheteau  and  I  were  seated,  this 
singular  father  continued  :  — 

*'  You  have,  apparently,  no  objection  to  accept  the 
political  career  we  have  prepared  for  you." 

"  On  the  contrary,"  I  said,  *' the  idea  surprised  me 
in  the  first  instance,  but  I  readily  adopted  it,  and  I 
have  executed  carefully,  in  order  to  insure  its  success, 
all  the  directions  that  have  been  conveyed  to  me." 

''  Right,"  said  the  marquis,  taking  from  the  table  a 
gold  snuff-box,  which  he  turned  in  his  fingers,  then  he 
added,  after  a  moment's  silence,  ''  I  owe  you  some  ex- 
planations ;  our  friend  here,  Jacques  Bricheteau,  will, 
if  he  pleases,  give  them  to  you." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  243 

This  was  equivalent  to  the  royal  formula  of  the  old 
regime  :  '*  My  chamberlain  will  tell  you  the  rest." 

''  To  go  back  to  the  origin  of  everything,"  said 
Jacques  Bricheteau,  accepting  the  duty  thus  put  upon 
him,  "  I  must  first  tell  you  tliat  you  are  not  a  legitimate 
Sallenauve.  When  Monsieur  le  marquis,  here  present, 
returned  after  the  emigration,  in  the  year  1808,  he 
made  the  acquaintance  of  your  mother,  and  in  1809 
you  were  born  as  the  fruit  of  their  intercourse.  Your 
birth,  as  you  already  know,  cost  your  mother  her  life, 
and  as  misfortunes  never  come  singly.  Monsieur  de 
Sallenauve  was  compromised  in  a  conspiracy  against 
the  imperial  power  and  compelled  to  fly  the  country. 
Brought  up  in  Arcis  with  me,  the  marquis,  wishing  to 
give  me  a  proof  of  his  friendship,  confided  to  me,  on 
his  departure  to  this  new  expatriation,  the  care  of  your 
childhood.  I  accepted  that  charge,  I  will  not  say  with 
alacrity,  but  certainly  with  gratitude." 

At  these  words  the  marquis  held  out  his  hand  to 
Jacques  Bricheteau,  who  was  seated  near  him,  and 
after  a  silent  pressure,  which  did  not  seem  to  me  re- 
markably warm,  Jacques  Bricheteau  continued  :  — 

*'  The  mysterious  precautions  I  was  forced  to  take 
in  carrying  out  my  trust  are  explained  by  Monsieur  le 
marquis's  position  towards  the  various  governments 
which  have  succeeded  each  other  in  France  since  the 
period  of  your  birth.  Under  the  Empire,  I  feared  that 
a  government  little  indulgent  to  attacks  upon  itself 
might  send  you  to  share  your  father's  exile ;  it  was 
then  that  the  idea  of  giving  you  a  sort  of  anonymous 
existence  first  occurred  to  me.  Under  the  Restoration  I 
feared  for  you  another  class  of  enemies  ;  the  Sallenauve 


244  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

family,  which  has  no  other  representatives  at  the  present 
day  than  Monsieur  le  marquis,  was  then  powerful.  In 
some  way  it  got  wind  of  your  existence,  and  also  of  the 
fact  that  the  marquis  had  taken  the  precaution  not 
to  recognize  you,  in  order  to  retain  the  right  to  leave 
you  his  whole  fortune,  which,  as  a  natural  child,  the 
law  would  in  part  have  deprived  you.  The  obscurity 
in  which  I  kept  you  seemed  to  me  the  best  security, 
against  the  schemes  of  greedy  relations,  and  certain 
mysterious  steps  taken  by  them  from  time  to  time 
proved  the  wisdom  of  these  precautions.  Under  the 
government  of  July,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  I  myself 
who  I  feared  might  endanger  you.  I  had  seen  the 
establishment  of  the  new  order  of  things  with  the 
deepest  regret,  and  not  believing  in  its  duration,  I  took 
part  in  certain  active  hostilities  against  it,  which  brought 
me  under  the  ban  of  the  police." 

Here  the  recollection  that  Jacques  Bricheteau  had 
been  pointed  out  by  the  waiter  of  the  Cafe  des  Arts 
as  a  member  of  the  police  made  me  smile,  whereupon 
the  speaker  stopped  short  and  said  with  a  very  serious 
air:  — 

^'  Do  these  explanations  which  I  have  the  honor  to 
give  you  seem  improbable  ?  " 

I  explained  the  meaning  of  my  smile. 

"  That  waiter,"  said  Jacques  Bricheteau,  "  was  not 
altogether  mistaken;  for  I  have  long  been  employed 
at  the  prefecture  of  police  in  the  health  department ; 
but  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  police  espial ;  on  the 
contrar}^,  I  have  more  than  once  come  near  being  the 
victim  of  it." 

Here   a   rather  ridiculous   noise   struck   our  ears, 


The  Deputy  of  Arels.  245 

nothing  less  than  a,  loud  snore  from  my  father,  who 
thus  gave  us  to  know  that  he  did  not  take  a  very  keen 
interest  in  the  explanations  furnished  in  his  name  with 
a  certain  prolixity.  I  don't  know  whether  Jacques 
Bricheteau's  vanity  being  touched  put  him  slightly  out 
of  temper,  but  he  rose  impatiently  and  shook  the  arm 
of  the  sleeper,  crying  out :  — 

''  Hey  !  marquis,  if  you  sleep  like  this  at  the  Council 
of  state,  upon  my  soul,  your  country  must  be  well 
governed  !  " 

Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  opened  his  eyes,  shook  him- 
self, and  thdn  said,  turning  to  me :  — 

*'  Pardon  me,  Monsieur  le  comte,  but  for  the  last 
ten  nights  I  have  travelled,  without  stopping,  to  meet 
you  here ;  and  though  I  spent  last  night  in  a  bed,  I  am 
still  much  fatigued." 

So  saying  he  rose,  took  a  large  pinch  of  snuff,  and 
began  to  walk  up  and  down  the  room,  while  Jacques 
Bricheteau  continued  :  — 

'*  It  is  a  little  more  than  a  year  since  I  received 
a  letter  from  your  father  explaining  his  long  silence, 
the  plans  he  had  made  for  you,  and  the  necessity  he 
was  under  of  keeping  his  incognito  for  a  few  years 
longer.  It  was  at  that  very  time  that  you  made  your 
attempt  to  penetrate  a  secret  the  existence  of  which 
had  become  apparent  to  you." 

''You  made  haste  to  escape  me,"  I  said  laughing. 
*'  It  was  then  you  went  to  Stockholm." 

*'  No,  I  went  to  your  father's  residence ;  I  put  the 
letter  that  he  gave  me  for  you  into  the  post  at  Stock- 
holm." 

*^  I  do  not  seize  your  —  " 


246  The  Dejputy  of  Arcis. 

"  Nothing  is  easier  to  understand,"  interrupted  the 
marquis.  "  I  do  not  reside  in  Sweden,  and  we  wished 
to  throw  you  off  the  track." 

"Will  you  continue  the  explanation  yourself?" 
asked  Jacques  Bricheteau,  who  spoke,  as  you  may 
have  observed,  my  dear  friend,  with  elegance  and 
fluency. 

"No,  no,  go  on,"  said  the  marquis;  "you  are 
giving  it  admirably." 

"  Feeling  certain  that  your  equivocal  position  as  to 
family  would  injure  the  political  career  your  father 
desired  you  to  enter,  I  made  that  remark  to  him  in  one 
of  my  letters.  He  agreed  with  me,  and  resolved  to 
hasten  the  period  of  your  legal  recognition,  which, 
indeed,  the  extinction  of  the  family  in  its  other  branch 
rendered  desirable.  But  the  recognition  of  a  natural 
child  is  a  serious  act  which  the  law  surrounds  with 
many  precautions.  Deeds  must  be  signed  before  a 
notary,  and  to  do  this  by  power  of  attorney  would 
involve  both  in  a  publicity  which  he  is  anxious  for 
the  present  to  avoid,  he  being  married,  and,  as  it  were, 
naturalized  in  the  country  of  his  adoption.  Hence, 
he  decided  to  come  here  himself,  obtaining  leave  of 
absence  for  a  few  weeks,  in  order  to  sign  in  person 
all  papers  necessary  to  secure  to  you  his  name  and 
property  in  this  country.  Now  let  me  put  to  you 
a  final  question.  Do  you  consent  to  take  the  name 
of  de  Sallenauve  and  be  recognized  as  his  son  ?  " 

"  I  am  not  a  lawyer,"  I  answered ;  '^  but  it  seems 
to  me  that,  supposing  I  do  not  feel  honored  by  this 
recognition,  it  does  not  wholly  depend  on  me  to  decline 
it." 


The  Deputy  of  Areis,  247 

*'  Pardon  me,"  replied  Jacques  Bricheteau  ;  ''  under 
the  circumstances  you  could,  if  you  chose,  legally 
contest  the  paternity.  I  will  also  add,  —  and  in  doing 
so  I  am  sure  that  I  express  the  intentions  of  your 
father,  —  if  j^ou  think  that  a  man  who  has  already 
spent  half  a  million  on  furthering  your  career  is  not 
a  desirable  father,  we  leave  you  free  to  follow  your 
own  course,  and  shall  not  insist  in  any  way." 

"  Precisely,  precisely,"  said  Monsieur  de  Salle- 
nauve,  uttering  that  affirmation  with  the  curt  intona- 
tion and  shrill  voice  peculiar  to  the  relics  of  the  old 
aristocracy. 

Politeness,  to  say  the  least,  forced  me  to  accept 
the  paternity  thus  offered  to  me.  To  the  few  words 
I  uttered  to  that  effect,  Jacques  Bricheteau  replied 
gayly :  — 

'*  We  certainly  do  not  intend  to  make  you  buy 
a  father  in  a  poke.  Monsieur  le  marquis  is  desirous 
of  laying  before  you  all  title-deeds  and  documents 
of  every  kind  of  which  he  is  the  present  holder. 
Moreover,  as  he  has  been  so  long  absent  from  this 
country,  he  intends  to  prove  his  identity  by  several  of 
his  contemporaries  who  are  still  living.  For  instance, 
among  the  honorable  personages  who  have  already 
recognized  him  I  may  mention  the  worthy  superior 
of  the  Ursuline  convent.  Mother  Marie-des-Anges,  for 
whom,  by  the  bye,  you  have  done  a  masterpiece." 

"Faith,  yes,"  said  the  marquis,  *^a  pretty  thing, 
and  if  you  turn  out  as  well  in  politics  —  " 

"Well,  marquis,"  interrupted  Jacques  Bricheteau, 
who  seemed  to  me  inclined  to  manage  the  affair,  ''  are 
you  ready  to  proceed  with  our  young  friend  to  the 
verification  of  the  documents?" 


248  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

"  That  is  unnecessary,"  I  remarked,  and  I  did  not 
think  that  by  this  refusal  I  pledged  my  faith  too 
much ;  for,  after  all,  what  signify  papers  in  the  hands 
of  a  man  who  might  have  forged  them  or  stolen  them  ? 
But  my  father  would  not  consent ;  and  for  more  than 
two  hours  they  spread  before  me  parchments,  gene- 
alogical trees,  contracts,  patents,  documents  of  all 
kinds,  from  which  it  appeared  that  the  family  of 
Sallenauve  is,  after  that  of  Cinq-Cygne,  the  most 
ancient  family  in  the  department  of  the  Aube.  I 
ought  to  add  that  the  exhibition  of  these  archives 
was  accompanied  by  an  infinite  number  of  spoken 
details  which  seemed  to  make  the  identity  of  the 
Marquis  de  Sallenauve  indisputable.  On  all  other 
subjects  my  father  is  laconic ;  his  mental  capacit}' 
does  not  seem  to  me  remarkable,  and  he  willingly 
allowed  his  mouthpiece  to  talk  for  him.  But  here, 
in  the  matter  of  his  parchments,  he  was  loquaciously 
full  of  anecdotes,  recollections,  heraldic  knowledge ; 
in  short,  he  was  exactly  the  old  noble,  ignorant  and 
superficial  in  all  things,  but  possessed  of  Benedictine 
erudition  where  the  genealogy  of  his  family  was 
concerned. 

The  session  would,  I  believe,  be  still  going  on, 
if  Jacques  Bricheteau  had  not  intervened.  As  the 
marquis  was  preparing  to  read  a  voluminous  memo- 
randum refuting  a  chapter  in  Tallemant  des  Beaux' 
'''  Historic ttes  "  which  did  not  redound  to  the  credit 
of  the  great  house  of  Sallenauve,  the  wise  organist 
remarked  that  it  was  time  we  dined,  if  we  intended  to 
keep  an  appointment  already  made  for  seven  o'clock  at 
the  oflSce  of  Maitre  Achille  Pigoult  the  notary. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  249 

We  dined,  not  at  the  table-d'h6te,  but  in  private, 
and  the  dinner  seemed  very  long  on  account  of  the 
silent  preoccupation  of  the  marquis,  and  the  slowness 
with  which,  owing  to  his  loss  of  teeth,  he  swallowed 
his  food. 

At  seven  o'clock  we  went  to  the  notary's  office  ;  but 
as  it  is  now  two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  I  am 
heavy  with  sleep,  I  shall  put  off  till  to-morrow  an  ac- 
count of  what  happened  there. 

May  4,  5  a.  m. 

I  reckoned  on  peaceful  slumbers,  embellished  by 
dreams.  On  the  contrary,  I  did  not  sleep  an  hour, 
and  I  have  waked  up  stung  to  the  heart  by  an  odious 
thought.  But  before  I  transmit  that  thought  to  you,  I 
must  tell  you  what  happened  at  the  notary's. 

Maltre  Achille  Pigoult,  a  puny  little  man,  horribly 
pitted  with  the  small-pox,  and  afflicted  with  green 
spectacles,  above  which  he  darts  glances  of  vivacious 
intelligence,  asked  us  if  we  felt  warm  enough,  the 
room  having  no  fire.  Politeness  required  us  to  say 
yes,  although  he  had  already  given  signs  of  incendia- 
rism by  striking  a  match,  when,  from  a  distant  and 
dark  corner  of  the  room,  a  broken,  feeble  voice,  the 
owner  of  which  we  had  not  as  yet  perceived,  interposed 
to  prevent  the  prodigality. 

*'  No,  Achille,  no,  don't  make  a  fire,'^  said  an  old 
man.  *'  There  are  five  in  the  room,  and  the  lamp  gives 
out  a  good  heat ;  before  long  the  room  would  be  too 
hot  to  bear." 

Hearing  these  words,  the  marquis  exclaimed  :  — 

**  Ah !  this  is  the  good  Monsieur  Pigoult,  formerly 
justice  of  the  peace." 


250  The  Deputy  of  Areis. 

Thus  recognized,  the  old  man  rose  and  went  up  to 
my  father,  into  whose  face  he  peered. 

''  Parhleu !  "  he  cried,  *'  I  recognize  you  for  a 
Champagnard  of  the  vieille  rocJie.  Achille  did  not 
deceive  me  in  declaring  that  I  should  see  two  of  my 
former  acquaintances.  You,"  he  said,  addressing  the 
organist,  "  you  are  little  Bricheteau,  the  nephew  of 
our  good  abbess,  Mother  Marie-des-Anges ;  but  as  for 
that  tall  skeleton,  looking  like  a  duke  and  peer,  I 
can't  recall  his  name.  However,  I  don't  blame  my 
m'emory ;  after  eighty-six  years'  service  it  may  well  be 
rusty." 

"Come,  grandfather,"  said  Achille  Pigoult,  "  brush 
up  your  memory ;  and  you,  gentlemen,  not  a  word, 
not  a  gesture.  I  want  to  be  clear  in  my  own  mind. 
I  have  not  the  honor  to  know  the  client  for  whom  I  am 
asked  to  draw  certain  deeds,  and  I  must,  as  a  matter 
of  legal  regularity,  have  him  identified." 

While  his  son  spoke,  the  old  man  was  evidently 
straining  his  memory.  My  father,  fortunately,  has  a 
nervous  twitching  of  the  face,  which  increased  under 
the  fixed  gaze  his  certifier  fastened  upon  him. 

"  Hey  !  parhleu  !  I  have  it !  "  he  cried.  "  Monsieur 
is  the  Marquis  de  Sallenauve,  whom  we  used  to  call  the 
'  Grimacer,'  and  who  would  now  be  the  owner  of  the 
Chateau  d'Arcis  if,  instead  of  wandering  off,  like 
the  other  fools,  into  emigration,  he  had  stayed  at 
home  and  married  his  pretty  cousin." 

"  You  are  still  sayis-culotte^  it  seems,"  said  the  mar- 
quis, laughing. 

"Messieurs,"  said  the  notary,  gravely,  "  the  proof 
I  had  arranged  for  myself  is  conclusive.     This  proof, 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  251 

together  with  the  title-deeds  and  documents  Monsieur 
le  marquis  has  shown  to  me,  and  which  he  deposits  in 
my  hands,  together  with  the  certificate  of  identity  sent 
to  me  by  Mother  Marie-des-Anges,  who  cannot,  under 
the  rules  of  her  Order,  come  to  my  office,  are  sufficient 
for  the  execution  of  the  deeds  which  I'  have  here  — 
already  prepared.  The  presence  of  two  witnesses  is 
required  for  one  of  them.  Monsieur  Bricheteau  will, 
of  course,  be  the  witness  on  your  side,  and  on  the 
other  my  father,  if  agreeable  to  you ;  it  is  an  honor 
that,  as  I  think,  belongs  to  him  of  right,  for,  as  one 
may  say,  this  matter  has  revived  his  memory." 

*'  Very  good,  messieurs,  let  us  proceed,"  said  Jacques 
Bricheteau,  heartily. 

The  notary  sat  down  at  his  desk  ;  the  rest  of  us  sat 
in  a  circle  around  him,  and  the  reading  of  the  first 
document  began.  Its  purport  was  to  establish,  au- 
thentically, the  recognition  made  by  Fran9ois-Henri- 
Pantaleon  Dumirail,  Marquis  de  Sallenauve,  of  me,  his 
son.  But  in  the  course  of  the  reading  a  difficulty  came 
up.  Notarial  deeds  must,  under  pain  of  being  null 
and  void,  state  the  domicile  of  all  contracting  parties. 
Now,  where  was  my  father's  domicile  ?  This  part  had 
been  left  in  blank  by  the  notary,  who  now  insisted  on 
filling  it  before  proceeding  farther. 

''  As  for  this  domicile,"  said  Achille  Pigoult,  "Mon- 
sieur le  marquis  appears  to  have  none  in  France,  as  he 
does  not  reside  in  this  country,  and  has  owned  no 
property  here  for  a  long  time." 

''  It  is  true,"  said  the  marquis,  seeming  to  put  more 
meaning  into  his  words  than  they  naturally  carried, 
**  I  am  a  mere  vagabond  in  France." 


252  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

'^Ah!"  said  Jacques  Bricheteau,  ''vagabonds  like 
you,  who  can  present  their  sons  with  the  necessary  sum 
to  buy  estates,  are  not  to  be  pitied.  Still,  the  remark 
is  a  just  one,  not  only  as  to  France,  but  as  to  your 
residence  in  foreign  countries.  With  your  eternal 
mania  for  roving,  it  is  really  very  difficult  to  assign 
you  a  domicile." 

"Well,"  said  Achille  Pigoult,  "it  does  not  seem 
worth  while  to  let  so  small  a  matter  stop  us.  Mon- 
sieur," he  continued,  motioning  to  me,  "is  now  the 
owner  of  the  Chateau  d' Arcis,  for  an  engagement  to 
sell  is  as  good  as  the  sale  itself.  What  more  natural, 
therefore,  than  that  the  father's  domicile  should  be 
stated  as  being  on  his  son's  estate,  especially  as  this  is 
really  the  family  property  now  returned  into  the  hands 
of  the  family,  being  purchased  by  the  father  for  the 
son,  particularly  as  that  father  is  known  and  recognized 
by  some  of  the  oldest  and  most  important  inhabitants 
of  the  place  ?  " 

"  Yes,  that  is  true,"  said  old  Pigoult,  adopting  his 
son's  opinion  without  hesitation. 

"  In  short,"  said  Jacques  Bricheteau,  "  you  think 
the  matter  can  go  on." 

"  You  see  that  my  fatlier,  a  man  of  great  experi- 
ence, did  not  hesitate  to  agree  Yi\\h  me.  We  say, 
therefore,"  continued  the  notary,  taking  up  his  pen, 
"  FranQois-Henri-Pantaleon  Dumirail,  Marquis  de 
Sallenauve,  domiciled  with  Monsieur  Charles  de 
Sallenauve,  his  natural  son,  by  him  legally  recog- 
nized, in  the  house  known  as  the  Chateau  d' Arcis, 
arrondissement  of  Arcis-sur-Aube,  department  of  the 
Aube." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  253 

The  rest  of  the  deed  was  read  and  executed  without 
comment. 

Then  followed  a  rather  ridiculous  scene. 

'*  Now,  Monsieur  le  comte,"  said  Jacques  Bricheteau, 
*'  embrace  your  father." 

The  marquis  opened  his  arms  rather  indifferently, 
and  I  coldly  fell  into  them,  vexed  with  myself  for  not 
being  deeply  moved  and  for  not  hearing  in  my  heart 
the  voice  of  kindred.  Was  this  barrenness  of  emotion 
the  result  of  my  sudden  accession  to  wealth  ?  A  mo- 
ment later  a  second  deed  made  me  possessor,  on  pay- 
ment of  one  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  francs  in 
ready  money,  of  the  Chateau  d'Arcis,  —  a  grand  edifice 
which  had  caught  my  eye,  on  my  first  arrival  in  the 
town,   by  its  lordly  and  feudal  air. 

''  You  may  congratulate  yourselves,"  said  Achille 
Pigoult,  ''that  you  have  got  that  estate  for  a  song." 

''  Come,  come  !  "  said  Jacques  Bricheteau,  ''  how 
long  have  you  had  it  on  your  hands  to  sell?  Your 
client  would  have  let  it  go  for  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  to  others,  but,  as  family  property,  you 
thought  you  could  get  more  from  us.  We  shall  have 
to  spend  twenty  thousand  to  make  the  house  habit- 
able ;  the  land  does  n't  return  a  rental  of  more  than 
four  thousand ;  so  that  our  money,  all  expenses  de- 
ducted, won't  return  us  more  than  two  and  a  half  per 
cent." 

"What  are  you  complaining  about?"  returned 
Achille  Pigoult.  *'  You  have  employment  to  give  and 
money  to  pay  in  the  neighborhood,  and  what  can  be 
better  for  a  candidate*?  " 

*'  Ah  !  that  electoral  business,"  said  Jacques  Bridie- 


254  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

teau ;  "we  will  talk  about  that  to-morrow  when  we 
bring  you  the  purchase-money  and  your  fees." 

Thereupon  we  took  leave,  and  returned  to  the  H6tel 
de  la  Poste,  where  I  bade  good-night  to  my  father  and 
came  to  my  room  to  write  to  you. 

Now  I  must  tell  you  the  terrible  idea  that  drove 
sleep  from  my  brain  and  put  the  pen  once  more  in  my 
hand,  —  although  I  am  somewhat  distracted  from  it 
by  writing  the  foregoing  two  pages,  and  I  do  not  see 
quite  as  much  evidence  for  my  notion  as  I  did  before  I 
renewed  this  letter. 

One  thing  is  certain:  during  the  last  year  many 
romantic  incidents  have  happened  to  me.  You  may 
say  that  adventure  seems  to  be  the  logical  way  of  life 
for  one  in  my  position  ;  that  my  birth,  the  chances  that 
brought  you  (whose  fate  is  so  like  mine)  and  me  to- 
gether, my  relations  with  Marianina  and  my  handsome 
housekeeper,  and  perhaps  I  might  say  with  Madame 
de  I'Estorade,  all  point  to  the  possession  of  a  fickle  star, 
and  that  my  present  affair  is  only  one  of  its  caprices. 

True  ;  but  what  if,  at  the  present  moment  under  the 
influence  of  that  star,  I  were  implicated  without  my 
knowledge  in  some  infernal  plot  of  which  I  was  made 
the  passive  instrument? 

To  put  some  order  into  my  ideas,  I  begin  by  this 
half-million  spent  for  an  interest  which  you  must  agree 
is  very  nebulous,  —  that  of  fitting  me  to  succeed  my 
father  in  the  ministry  of  some  imaginary  country,  the 
name  of  which  is  carefully  concealed  from  me. 

Next :  who  is  spending  these  fabulous  sums  on  me  ? 
Is  it  a  father  tenderly  attached  to  a  child  of  love? 
No.  it  is  a  father  who  shows  me  the  utmost  coldness, 


The  Deputy  of  Areis,  255 

who  goes  to  sleep  when  deeds  which  concern  our  mutual 
existence  are  being  drawn,  and  for  whom  I,  on  my 
side,  am  conscious  of  no  feeling ;  in  fact,  not  to  mince 
my  words,  I  should  think  him  a  great  booby  of  an 
emigre  if  it  were  not  for  the  filial  respect  and  duty  I 
force  myself  to  feel  for  him. 

But  —  suppose  this  man  were  not  my  father,  not 
even  the  Marquis  de  Sallenauve,  as  he  asserts  himself 
to  be ;  suppose,  like  that  unfortunate  Lucien  de 
Rubempre,  whose  history  has  made  so  much  noise,  I 
were  caught  in  the  toils  of  a  serpent  like  that  false 
abbe  Don  Carlos  Herrera,  and  had  made  myself  liable 
to  the  same  awful  awakening.  You  may  say  to  me 
that  you  see  no  such  likelihood ;  that  Carlos  Herrera 
had  an  object  in  fascinating  Lucien  and  making  him 
his  double ;  but  that  I,  an  older  man  with  solid  prin- 
ciples and  no  love  of  luxury,  who  have  lived  a  life  of 
thought  and  toil,  should  fear  such  influence,  is  nonsense. 

So  be  it.  But  why  should  the  man  who  recognizes 
me  as  his  son  conceal  the  very  country  in  which  he 
lives,  and  the  name  by  which  he  is  known  in  that  equally 
nameless  Northern  land  which  it  is  intimated  that  he 
governs?  Why  make  such  sacrifices  for  my  benefit 
and  show  so  little  confidence?  And  see  the  mystery 
with  which  Jacques  Bricheteau  has  surrounded  my  life  ! 
Do  you  think  that  that  long-winded  explanation  of  his 
explained  it? 

All  this,  my  dear  friend,  rolling  in  my  head  and 
clashing  with  that  half-million  already  paid  to  me,  has 
given  substance  to  a  strange  idea,  at  which  you  may 
perhaps  laugh,  but  which,  nevertheless,  is  not  without 
precedent  in  criminal  annals. 


256  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

I  told  you  just  now  that  this  thought  invaded  me  as 
it  were  suddenly ;  it  came  like  an  instinct  upon  me. 
Assuredly,  if  I  had  had  the  faintest  inkling  of  it  last 
evening,  I  would  have  cut  off  my  right  hand  sooner 
than  sign  that  deed  by  which  I  have  henceforth  bound 
my  fate  to  that  of  an  unknown  man  whose  past  and 
future  may  be  as  gloomy  as  a  canto  of  Dante's  Hell, 
and  who  may  drag  me  down  with  him  into  outer 
darkness. 

In  short,  this  idea  —  round  which  I  am  making  you 
circle  because  I  cannot  bring  myself  to  let  you  enter 
it  —  here  it  is,  in  all  its  crudity ;  I  am  afraid  of  being, 
without  my  knowledge,  the  agent,  the  tool  of  those 
associations  of  false  coiners  who  are  known  in  criminal 
records  to  concoct  schemes  as  complicated  and  myste- 
rious as  the  one  I  am  now  involved  in,  in  order  to  put 
into  circulation  the  money  they  coin.  In  all  such 
cases  you  will  find  great  coming  and  going  of  accom- 
plices ;  cheques  drawn  from  a  distance  on  the  bankers 
in  great  commercial  centres  like  Paris,  Stockholm, 
Rotterdam.  Often  one  hears  of  poor  dupes  compro- 
mised. In  short,  do  you  not  see  in  the  mysterious 
ways  of  this  Bricheteau  something  like  an  imitation,  a 
reflection  of  the  manoeuvres  to  which  these  criminal 
workers  are  forced  to  have  recourse,  arranging  them 
with  a  talent  and  a  richness  of  imagination  to  which 
a  novelist  can  scarcely  attain? 

One  thing  is  certain  :  there  is  about  me  a  thick  un- 
wholesome atmosphere,  in  which  I  feel  that  air  is  lack- 
ing and  I  cannot  breathe.  However,  assure  me,  if  you 
can,  persuade  me,  I  ask  no  better,  that  this  is  all  an 
empty  dream.     But  in  any  case  I  am  determined   to 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  257 

have  a  full  explanation  with  these  two  men  to-morrow, 
and  to  obtain,  although  so  late,  more  light  than  they 
have  yet  doled  out  to  me.  .  .  . 

Another  and  yet  stranger  fact !  As  I  wrote  those 
last  words,  a  noise  of  horses'  hoofs  came  from  the 
street.  Distrustful  now  of  everything,  I  opened  my 
window,  and  in  the  dawning  light  I  saw  a  travelling- 
carriage  before  the  door  of  the  inn,  the  postilion  in  the 
saddle,  and  Jacques  Bricheteau  talking  to  some  one 
who  was  seated  in  the  vehicle.  Deciding  quickly  on 
my  action,  I  ran  rapidly  downstairs;  but  before  I 
reached  the  bottom  I  heard  the  roll  of  wheels  and  the 
cracking  of  the  postilion's  whip.  At  the  foot  of  the 
staircase  I  came  face  to  face  with  Jacques  Bricheteau. 
AVithout  seeming  embarrassed,  in  fact  with  the  most 
natural  air  in  the  world,  he  said  to  me,  — 

"  What !  my  dear  ward  already  up?  " 

"  Of  course ;  the  least  I  could  do  was  to  say  fare- 
well to  my  excellent  father." 

*'  He  did  not  wish  it,"  replied  that  damned  musician, 
with  an  imperturbability  and  phlegm  that  deserved  a 
thrashing  ;  '*  he  feared  the  emotions  of  parting." 

**  Is  he  so  dreadfully  hurried  that  he  could  not  even 
give  a  day  to  his  new  and  ardent  paternity?  " 

'*The  truth  is,  he  is  an  original;  what  he  came  to 
do,  he  has  done ;  after  that,  to  his  mind,  there  is 
nothing  to  stay  for." 

''  Ah !  I  understand ;  he  hastens  to  those  high 
functions  he  performs  at  that  Northern  court !  " 

Jacques  Bricheteau  could  no  longer  mistake  the 
ironical  tone  in  which  these  words  were  said. 

"  Until  now,"  he  said,  "  you  have  shown  more  faith." 
17 


258  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

"  Yes ;  but  I  confess  that  faith  begins  to  stagger 
under  the  weight  of  the  mysteries  with'  which  it  is 
loaded  down  without  relief." 

"•  Seeing  you  at  this  decisive  moment  in  your  career 
giving  way  to  doubts  which  our  whole  conduct  pursued 
to  you  through  many  years  ought  to  refute,  I  should  be 
almost  in  despair,"  replied  Jacques  Bricheteau,  "if  I 
had  none  but  personal  denials  and  asseverations  to  offer 
you.  But,  as  you  will  remember,  old  Pigoult  spoke  of 
an  aunt  of  mine,  living  in  this  neighborhood,  where 
you  will  soon,  I  hope,  find  that  her  position  is  a  most 
honorable  one.  I  had  arranged  that  you  should  see  her 
in  the  course  of  the  day ;  but  now,  if  you  will  grant 
ine  the  time  to  shave,  I  will  take  you  at  once,  early  as 
it  is,  to  the  convent  of  the  Ursulines.  There  you  shall 
question  Mother  Marie-des-Anges,  who  has  the  reputa- 
tion of  a  saint  throughout  this  whole  department,  and 
I  think  that  at  the  close  of  your  interview  with  her 
no  doubt  can  remain  upon  your  mind." 

While  that  devil  of  a  man  was  speaking,  his  coun- 
tenance had  so  perfect  a  look  of  integrity  and  be- 
nevolence, his  speech,  always  calm,  elegant,  and  self- 
possessed,  so  impressed  the  mind  of  his  hearer,  that  I 
felt  the  tide  of  my  anger  going  down  and  my  sense  of 
security  rising. 

In  fact,  his  answer  is  Irresistible.  The  convent  of 
the  Ursuline  sisters  —  heavens  and  earth  !  that  can't  be 
the  rendezvous  of  makers  of  false  coin ;  and  if  the 
Mother  Marie-des-Anges  guarantees  my  father  to  me, 
as  it  appears  she  has  already  done  to  the  notary,  I 
should  be  foolish   indeed  to  persist  in  my  doubts. 

u  Ygi-y  good,"  I  said  to  Jacques  Bricheteau,  "  I  will 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  259 

go  up  and  get  my  hat  and  walk  up  and  down  the  bank 
of  the  river  until  you  are  ready." 

*' That's  right;  and  be  sure  you  watch  the  door  of 
the  hotel  to  see  that  I  do  not  give  you  the  slip  as  I  did 
once  upon  a  time  on  the  Quai  de  Bethune." 

Impossible  to  be  more  intelligent  than  that  man  ;  he 
seems  to  divine  one's  thoughts.  I  was  ashamed  of 
this  last  doubt  of  mine,  and  told  him  that,  on  the 
whole,  I  would  go  and  finish  a  letter  while  awaiting 
him.  It  was  this  letter,  dear  friend,  which  I  must 
now  close  if  I  wish  it  to  go  by  to-day's  post.  I  will 
write  you  soon  of  my  visit  to  the  convent. 

xiv.    marie-gaston  to  madame  la  cojitesse  de 
l'estokade. 

Arcis-scr-Acbe,  May  6,  1839. 
Madame,  —  In  any  case  I  should  gladly  have  prof- 
ited by  the  request  you  were  so  good  as  to  make  that 
I  should  write  to  you  during  my  stay  in  this  town  ;  but 
in  granting  me  this  favor  you  could  not  really  know 
the  full  extent  of  your  charity.  Without  you,  madame, 
and  the  consolation  of  writing  to  you  sometimes,  what 
would  become  of  me  under  the  habitual  weight  of  my 
sad  thoughts  in  a  town  which  has  neither  society,  nor 
commerce,  nor  curiosities,  nor  environs ;  and  where 
all  intellectual  activity  spends  itself  on  the  making  of 
pickled  pork,  soap-grease,  stockings,  and  cotton  night- 
caps. Dorlange,  whom  I  shall  not  long  call  by  that 
name  (you  shall  presently  know  why)  is  so  absorbed 
in  steering  bis  electoral  frigate  that  I  scarcely  see 
him. 


260  The  Deputy  of  Areis. 

I  told  you,  madaine,  that  I  resolved  to  come  down 
here  and  join  our  mutual  friend  in  consequence  of  a 
certain  trouble  of  mind  apparent  in  one  of  his  letters, 
which  informed  me  of  a  great  revolution  taking  place 
in  his  life.  I  am  able  to-day  to  be  more  explicit. 
Dorlange  at  last  knows  his  father.  He  is  the  natural 
son  of  the  Marquis  de  Sallenauve,  the  last  living  scion 
of  one  of  the  best  families  in  Champagne.  Without 
explaining  the  reasons  which  have  hitherto  induced  him 
to  keep  his  son's  birth  secret,  the  marquis  has  now 
recognized  him  legally.  He  has  also  bought  and  pre- 
sented to  him  an  estate  formerly  belonging  to  the 
Sallenauve  family.  This  estate  is  situated  in  Arcis 
itself,  and  its  possession  will  assist  the  project  of  our 
friend's  election.  That  project  dates  much  farther 
back  than  we  thought ;  and  it  did  not  take  its  rise  in 
the  fancy  of  Dorlange. 

A  year  ago,  the  marquis  began  to  prepare  for  it  by 
sending  his  son  a  sum  of  money  for  the  purchase  of  real 
estate  in  conformity  with  electoral  laws ;  and  it  is  also 
for  the  furtherance  of  this  purpose  that  he  has  now 
made  him  doubly  a  landowner.  The  real  object  of 
all  these  sacrifices  not  seeming  plain  to  Charles  de 
Sallenauve,  doubts  have  arisen  in  his  mind,  and  it  was 
to  assist  in  dispelling  them  that  my  friendship  for  the 
poor  fellow  brought  me  here. 

The  marquis  appears  to  be  as  odd  and  whimsical 
as  he  is  opulent;  for,  instead  of  remaining  in  Arcis, 
where  his  presence  and  his  name  would  contribute  to 
the  success  of  the  election  he  desires,  the  very  day 
after  legal  formalities  attending  the  recognition  of  his 
son  had  been  complied  with,  he  departed  furtively  for 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  261 

foreign  countries,  where  he  says  he  has  important 
interests,  without  so  much  as  taking  leave  of  his  son. 
This  coldness  has  poisoned  the  happiness  Charles  would 
otherwise  feel  in  these  events ;  but  one  must  take 
fathers  as  they  are,  for  Dorlange  and  I  are  living 
proofs  that  all  cannot  have  them  as  they  want  them. 

Another  eccentricity  of  the  marquis  is  the  choice 
he  has  made,  as  chief  assistant  in  his  son's  election, 
of  an  old  Ursuline  nun,  with  whom  he  seems  to  have 
made  a  bargain,  in  which,  strange  to  say,  you  have 
unconsciously  played  a  part.  Yes,  madame,  the  Saint- 
Ursula  for  which,  unknown  to  yourself,  you  were  pos- 
ing, will  have,  to  all  appearances,  a  considerable  influ- 
ence on  the  election  of  our  friend.     The  case  is  this : 

For  many  years  Mother  Marie-des-Anges,  superior 
of  the  Ursuline  convent  at  Arcis-sur-Aube,  has  desired 
to  install  in  the  chapel  of  her  convent  an  image  of  its 
patron  saint.  But  this  abbess,  who  is  a  woman  of 
taste  and  intelligence,  would  not  listen  to  the  idea 
of  one  of  those  stock  figures  which  can  be  bought 
ready-made  from  the  venders  of  church  decorations. 
On  the  other  hand,  she  thought  it  was  robbing  her 
poor  to  spend  on  this  purpose  the  large  sum  necessary 
to  procure  a  work  of  art.  The  nephew  of  this  excel- 
lent woman  is  an  organist  in  Paris  to  whom  the  Mar- 
quis de  Sallenauve,  then  in  emigration,  had  confided 
the  care  of  his  son.  When  it  became  a  question  of 
making  Charles  a  deputy,  the  marquis  naturally 
thought  of  Arcis,  a  place  where  his  family  had  left 
so  many  memories.  The  organist  also  recollected 
his  aunt's  desire ;  he  knew  how  influential  she  was 
in  that  region  because  of  her  saintliness,  and  having 


262  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

in  his  nature  a  touch  of  that  intrigue  which  likes  to 
undertake  things  difficult  and  arduous,  he  went  to 
see  her,  with  the  approval  of  the  Marquis  de  Salle- 
nauve,  and  let  her  know  that  one  of  the  most  skilful 
sculptors  in  Paris  was  ready  to  make  her  the  statue 
of  Saint-Ursula  if  she,  on  her  side,  would  promise 
to  secure  the  artist's  election  as  deputy  from  the 
arrondissement  of  Arcis. 

The  old  nun  did  not  think  the  undertaking  beyond 
her  powers.  She  now  possesses  the  object  of  her 
pious  longings ;  the  statue  arrived  some  days  ago, 
and  is  already  in  the  chapel  of  the  convent,  where  she 
proposes  to  give  it,  before  long,  a  solemn  inaugura- 
tion. It  now  remains  to  be  seen  whether  the  good 
nun  will  perform  her  part  of  the  contract. 

Well,  madame,  strange  to  say,  after  hearing  and 
inquiring  into  the  whole  matter  I  shall  not  be  sur- 
prised if  this  remarkable  woman  should  carry  the  day. 
From  the  description  our  friend  gives  of  her.  Mother 
Marie-des-Anges  is  a  small  woman,  short  and  thick-set, 
whose  face  is  prepossessing  and  agreeable  beneath  its 
wrinkles  and  the  mask  of  saflfron-tinted  pallor  which 
time  and  the  austerities  of  a  cloister  have  placed  upon 
it.  Carrying  very  lightly  the  weight  of  her  corpu- 
lence and  also  that  of  her  seventy-six  years,  she  is 
lively,  alert,  and  frisky  to  a  degree  that  shames  the 
youngest  of  us.  For  fifty  years  she  has  governed 
in  a  masterly  manner  her  community,  which  has 
always  been  the  most  regular,  the  best  organized, 
and  also  the  richest  society  in  the  diocese  of  Troyes. 
Admirably  fitted  for  the  training  of  youth,  she  has  long 
conducted  a  school  for  girls,  which  is  famous  through- 


The  Deputy  of  Areis.  263 

out  the  department  of  the  Aube  and  adjacent  regions. 
Having  thus  superintended  the  education  of  nearly 
all  the  daughters  of  the  best  houses  in  the  province, 
it  is  easy  to  imagine  the  influence  she  has  acquired 
among  the  aristocracy,  —  an  influence  she  probably 
intends  to  use  in  the  electoral  struggle  she  has 
promised  to  take  part  in. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  appears  that  this  really  ex- 
traordinary woman  is  the  sovereign  disposer  of  the 
votes  of  the  democratic  party  in  the  arrondissement 
of  Arcis.  Until  now,  the  existence  of  that  party  in 
Arcis  has  been  considered  problematical;  but  it  is 
actually,  by  its  nature,  active  and  stirring,  and  our 
candidate  proposes  to  present  himself  under  its  banner. 
Evidently,  therefore,  the  support  the  good  mother  has 
promised  will  be  useful  and  important. 

I  am  sure  you  will  admire  with  me  the  —  as  one 
might  say  —  bicephalous  ability  of  this  old  nun,  who 
has  managed  to  keep  well  with  the  nobility  and  the 
secular  clergy  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  to 
lead  with  her  wand  the  radical  party,  their  sworn 
enemy.  Admirable  for  her  charity  and  her  lucid 
intellect,  respected  throughout  the  region  as  a  saint, 
exposed  during  the  Revolution  to  a  dreadful  perse- 
cution, which  she  bore  with  rare  courage,  one  can 
easily  understand  her  close  relations  with  the  upper 
and  conservative  classes;  but  why  she  should  be 
equally  welcome  to  democrats  and  to  the  sabverters 
of  order  would  seem,  at  first,  to  pass  all  belief. 

The  power  which  she  undoubtedly  wields  over  the 
revolutionary  party  took  its  rise,  madame,  in  a 
struggle  which  they  formerly  had  together.     In  1793 


264  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

that  amiable  party  were  bent  upon  cutting  her  throat. 
Driven  from  her  convent,  and  convicted  of  harbor- 
ing a  ''refractory"  priest,  she  was  incarcerated, 
arraigned  before  the  revolutionary  tribunal,  and  con- 
demned to  death.  The  matter  was  reported  to  Danton, 
a  native  of  Arcis,  and  then  a  member  of  the  National 
Convention.  Danton  had  known  Mother  Marie-des- 
Anges ;  he  thought  her  the  most  virtuous  and  en- 
lightened woman  he  had  ever  met.  Hearing  of  her 
condemnation,  he  was  furiously  angry,  and  wrote,  as 
they  said  in  those  days,  a  high-horse  letter  to  the 
Revolutionary  tribunal,  and,  with  an  authority  no 
human  being  in  Arcis  would  have  dared  to  contest, 
he  ordered  a  reprieve. 

The  same  day  he  mounted  the  tribune,  and  after 
speaking  in  general  terms  of  the  "  bloody  boobies  " 
who  by  their  foolish  fury  compromised  the  future 
of  the  Revolution,  he  told  who  and  what  Mother 
Marie-des-Anges  really  was;  he  dwelt  on  her  mar- 
vellous aptitude  for  the  training  of  youth,  and  he 
presented  a  scheme  in  which  she  was  placed  at  the 
head  of  a  "  grand  national  gynaecium,"  the  organi- 
zation of  which  was  to  be  made  the  subject  of  another 
decree.  Robespierre,  who  would  have  thought  the 
intellect  of  an  Ursuline  nun  only  a  more  imperative 
reason  for  bringing  her  under  the  revolutionary  axe, 
was  absent  that  day  from  the  session,  and  the  motion 
was  voted  with  enthusiasm.  The  head  of  Mother 
Marie-des-Anges  being  indispensably  necessary  to  the 
carrying  out  of  this  decree  of  the  sovereign  people, 
she  kept  it  on  her  shoulders,  and  the  headsman  put 
aside  his  machine. 


The  Deputy  of  Arois.  265 

Though  the  other  decree,  organizing  the  Grand 
National  GynaBcium,  was  lost  sight  of  in  the  many 
other  duties  that  devolved  upon  the  Convention,  the 
excellent  nun  carried  it  out  after  her  fashion.  Instead 
of  something  grand  and  Greek  and  national,  she 
started  in  Arcis  a  secular  girl's-school,  and  as  soon  as 
a  little  quiet  was  restored  to  the  minds  of  the  com- 
munity, pupils  flocked  in  from  all  quarters.  Under 
the  Empire  Mother  Marie-des-Anges  was  able  to 
reconstitute  her  Ursuline  sisterhood,  and  the  first  act 
of  her  restored  authority  was  a  recognition  of  grati- 
tude. She  decreed  that  every  year  on  the  5th  of  April, 
the  anniversary  of  Danton's  death,  a  service  should  be 
held  in  the  chapel  of  the  convent  for  the  repose  of  his 
soul.  To  those  who  objected  to  this  edict  she  an- 
swered :  ''  Do  you  know  many  for  whom  it  is  more 
necessary  to  implore  God's  mercy?  " 

Under  the  Restoration,  the  celebration  of  this  service 
became  a  sort  of  scandal ;  but  Mother  Marie-des- 
Anges  would  never  hear  of  suppressing  it,  and  the 
great  veneration  which  has  always  surrounded  her 
obliged  these  cavillers  to  hold  their  tongues.  This 
courageous  obstinacy  had  its  reward,  under  the  gov- 
ernment of  July.  To-day  Mother  Marie-des-Anges  is 
high  in  court  favor,  and  there  is  nothing  she  cannot 
obtain  in  the  most  august  regions  of  power ;  but  it  is 
only  just  to  add  that  she  asks  nothing,  —  not  even  for 
her  charities,  for  she  provides  the  means  to  do  them 
nobly  by  the  wise  manner  in  which  she  administers  the 
property  of  her  convent. 

Her  gratitude,  thus  openly  shown  to  the  memory  of 
the  great  revolutionist,  has  been  of  course  to  the  revolu- 


266  The  Deputy  of  Areis. 

tionary  party  a  potent  recommendation,  but  not  the 
only  one. 

In  Arcis  the  leader  of  the  advanced  Left  is  a  rich 
miller  named  Laurent  Goussard,  who  possesses  two  or 
three  mills  on  the  river  Aube.  This  man,  formerly  a 
member  of  the  revolutionary  municipalitj'  of  Arcis  and 
the  intimate  friend  of  Danton,  was  the  one  who  wrote 
to  the  latter  telling  him  that  the  axe  was  suspended 
over  the  throat  of  the  ex-superior  of  the  Ursulines. 
This,  however,  did  not  prevent  the  worthy  sans-culotte 
from  buying  up  the  greater  part  of  the  convent  prop- 
erty when  it  was  sold  under  the  name  of  national 
domain. 

At  the  period  when  Mother  Marie-des-Anges  was 
authorized  to  reconstitute  her  community,  Laurent 
Goussard,  who  had  not  made  much  by  his  purchase, 
went  to  see  the  good  abbess,  and  proposed  to  her  to 
bay  back  the  former  property  of  her  convent.  Very 
shrewd  in  business,  Laurent  Goussard,  whose  niece 
Mother  Marie-des-Anges  had  educated  gratuitously, 
seemed  to  pique  himself  on  the  great  liberality  of  this 
offer,  the  terms  of  which  were  that  the  sisterhood  should 
reimburse  him  the  amount  of  his  purchase-money. 
The  dear  man  was  not  however  making  a  bad  bargain, 
for  the  difference  in  the  value  of  assign ats  with  which 
he  had  paid  and  the  good  sound  money  he  would  re- 
ceive made  a  pretty  profit.  But  Mother  Marie-des- 
Anges,  remembering  that  without  his  warning  Danton 
could  not  have  saved  her,  did  better  still  for  her  first 
helper.  At  the  time  when  Laurent  Goussard  made  his 
offer  the  community  of  the  Ursulines  was,  financially 
speaking,  in  an  excellent  position.     Having  since   its^ 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  267 

restoration  received  many  liberal  gifts,  it  was  also  en- 
riched by  the  savings  of  its  superior,  made  from  the 
proceeds  of  her  secular  school,  which  she  generously 
made  over  to  the  common  fund.  Laurent  Goussard 
must  therefore  have  been  thunderstruck  when  he  read 
the  following  letter  :  — 

"  Your  proposal  does  not  suit  me.  My  conscience  will  not 
allow  me  to  buy  property  below  its  proper  value.  Before 
the  Revolution  the  property  of  our  abbey  was  estimated  at  — 
[so  much].  That  is  the  price  I  choose  to  give,  and  not  that 
to  which  it  has  fallen  since  the  great  depreciation  of  all 
property  called  national.  In  a  word,  my  friend,  I  wish  to 
pay  you  more  than  you  ask  ;  let  me  know  if  that  suits 
you." 

Laurent  Goussard  thought  at  first  that  either  she  had 
misunderstood  him  or  he  her.  But  when  it  became 
clear  to  him  that  owing  to  these  pretended  scruples  of 
Mother  Marie-des-Anges,  he  was  the  gainer  of  fifty 
thousand  francs,  he  would  not  do  violence  to  so  tender 
a  conscience,  and  he  pocketed  this  profit  (which  came 
to  him  literally  from  heaven),  but  he  went  about  relat- 
ing everywhere  the  marvellous  proceeding,  which,  as 
you  can  well  imagine,  put  Mother  Marie-des-Anges  on 
a  pinnacle  of  respect  (especially  from  the  holders  of 
other  national  property)  which  leaves  her  nothing  to 
fear  from  any  future  revolution.  Personally  Laurent 
Goussard  has  become  her  slave,  her  henchman.  He 
does  no  business,  he  takes  no  step,  he  never  moves  a 
sack  of  flour  without  going  to  her  for  advice ;  and,  as 
she  said  in  joke  the  other  day,  if  she  took  a  fancy  to 
make  a  John  the  Baptist  of  the  sub-prefect,  Laurent 
Goussard  would  bring  her  his  head  on  a  charger.    That 


268  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

is  proof  enough  that  he  will  also  bring  his  vote  and 
that  of  his  friends  to  any  candidate  she  may  favor. 

Among  the  clergy  Mother  Marie-des-Anges  has, 
naturally,  many  affiliations,  —  as  much  on  account  of 
her  high  reputation  for  goodness  as  for  the  habit  of  her 
order,  but  she  particularly  counts  among  the  number 
of  her  most  zealous  servitors  Monseigneur  Troubert, 
bishop  of  the  diocese,  who,  though  formerly  a  familiar 
of  the  Congregation  [see  ' '  The  Vicar  of  Tours  "],  has 
nevertheless  managed  to  secure  from  the  dynasty  of 
July  an  archbishopric  which  will  lead  to  a  cardinalship. 

When  you  have  the  clergy  you  have,  or  you  are  very 
near  having,  the  legitimist  party  with  you,  —  a  party 
which,  while  passionately  desirous  of  free  education  and 
filled  with  hatred  for  the  July  throne,  is  not  averse, 
when  occasion  offers,  to  yielding  to  a  monstrous  union 
with  the  radical  party.  Now  the  head  of  the  legitimists 
in  Arcis  and  its  neighborhood  is,  of  course,  the  family 
of  Cinq-Cygne.  Never  does  the  old  marquise,  whose 
haughty  nature  and  powerful  will  you,  madame,  know 
well  [see  "  An  Historical  Mystery  "],  —  never  does  she 
drive  into  Arcis  from  her  chateau  of  Cinq-Cygne, 
without  paying  a  visit  to  Mother  Marie-des-Anges, 
who  in  former  days  educated  her  daughter  Berthe,  now 
the  Duchesse  Georges  de  Maufrigneuse. 

But  now  we  come  to  the  most  opposing  and  resisting 
side, — that  of  the  conservatives,  which  must  not  be 
confounded  with  the  party  of  the  administration. 
Here  we  find  as  its  leader  the  Comte  de  Gondreville, 
your  husband's  colleague  in  the  Chamber  of  peers. 
Closely  allied  to  the  count  is  a  very  influential  man, 
his  old  friend  Grevin,  formerly  mayor  and  notary  of 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  269 

Arcis,  who,  in  turn,  draws  after  him  another  elector 
of  considerable  influence,  Maitre  Achille  Pigoult,  to 
whom,  on  retiring  from  active  life,  he  sold  his  practice 
as  notary. 

But  Mother  Marie-des-Anges  has  a  powerful  means 
of  access  to  the  Corate  de  Gondreville  through  his 
daughter,  the  Marechale  de  Carigliano.  That  great 
lady,  who,  as  you  know,  has  taken  to  devotion,  goes 
into  retreat  every  year  at  the  Ursuline  convent.  More 
than  that,  the  good  Mother,  without  giving  any  expla- 
nations, intimates  that  she  has  a  lever  of  some  kind 
on  the  Comte  de  Gondreville  known  to  herself  only ; 
in  fact,  the  life  of  that  old  regicide  —  turned  sen- 
ator, then  count  of  the  Empire,  then  peer  of  France 
under  two  dynasties  —  has  wormed  itself  through  too 
many  tortuous  underground  ways  not  to  allow  us  to 
suppose  the  existence  of  secrets  he  might  not  care  to 
have  unmasked. 

Now  Gondreville  is  Grevin,  —  his  confidant,  and,  as 
they  say,  his  tool,  his  catspaw  for  the  last  fifty  years. 
But  even  supposing  that  by  an  utter  impossibility  their 
close  union  should,  under  present  circumstances,  be 
sundered,  we  are  certainly  sure  of  Achille  Pigoult, 
Grevin's  successor,  on  whom,  when  the  purchase  of 
the  chateau  d 'Arcis  was  made  in  his  office  by  the 
Marquis  de  Sallenauve,  a  fee  was  bestowed  of  such 
an  unusual  amount  that  to  accept  it  was  virtually  to 
pledge  himself. 

As  for  the  ruck  of  the  electors,  our  friend  cannot 
fail  to  make  recruits  there,  by  tlie  work  he  is  about  to 
give  in  repairing  the  chateau,  which,  fortunately  for 
him,  is  falling  into  ruins  in  several  places.     We  must 


270  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

also  count  on  the  manifesto  which  Charles  de  Salle- 
nauve  has  just  issued,  in  which  he  openly  declares  that 
he  will  accept  neither  favors  nor  employment  from  the 
government.  So  that,  really,  taking  into  consideration 
his  own  oratorical  talent,  the  support  of  the  Opposition 
journals  both  here  and  in  Paris,  the  insults  and  calum- 
nies which  the  ministerial  journals  are  already  beginning 
to  fire  upon  him,  I  feel  great  hopes  of  his  success. 

Forgive  me  for  presenting  to  you  in  glowing  colors 
the  parliamentary  future  of  a  man  of  whom,  you  said  to 
me  the  other  day,  you  felt  you  could  not  safely  make 
a  friend,  because  of  the  lofty  and  rather  impertinent 
assumption  of  his  personality.  To  tell  the  truth,  ma- 
dame,  whatever  political  success  may  be  in  store  for 
Charles  de  Sallenauve,  I  fear  that  he  may  one  day 
regret  the  calmer  fame  of  which  he  was  already  as- 
sured in  the  world  of  art.  But  neither  he  nor  I  was 
born  under  an  easy  and  accommodating  star.  Birth 
has  been  a  costly  thing  to  us ;  it  is  therefore  doubly 
cruel  not  to  like  us.  You  have  been  kind  to  me  be- 
cause you  fancy  that  a  lingering  fragrance  of  our  dear 
Louise  still  clings  to  me ;  give  something,  I  beseech 
you,  of  the  same  kindness  to  him  whom  I  have  not 
hesitated  in  this  letter  to  call  our  friend. 

XV.      MARIE-GASTON    TO    THE    COMTESSE    DE    l'eSTORADE. 

Arcis-sur-Aube,  May  13,  1839. 
Madame,  —  I  see  that  the  electoral  fever  is  upon 
you,  as  you  are  good  enough  to  send  me  from  Mon- 
sieur  de   I'Estorade   so   many   discouragements  which 
certainly  deserve  consideration. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  271 

We  knew  already  of  the  mission  given  to  Comte 
Maxime  de  Trailles,  —  a  mission  lie  endeavored  at 
first  to  conceal  under  some  irrigating  project.  We 
even  know  what  you,  madame,  seem  not  to  know,  — 
that  this  able  ministerial  agent  has  found  means  to 
combine  with  the  cares  of  electoral  politics  those  of  his 
own  private  policy.  Monsieur  Maxime  de  Trailles,  if 
we  are  rightly  informed,  was  on  the  point  of  succumb- 
ing to  the  chronic  malady  with  which  he  has  been  so 
long  afflicted  ;  I  mean  debt  Not  debts,  for  we  say  ' '  the 
debt  of  Monsieur  de  Trailles,"  as  we  say  "  the  debt  of 
England."  In  this  extremity  the  patient,  resolved  on 
heroic  remedies,  adopted  that  of  marriage,  which  might 
perhaps  be  called  marriage  in  extremis. 

To  cut  a  long  story  short,  Monsieur  de  Trailles  was 
sent  to  Arcis  to  put  an  end  to  the  candidacy  of  an 
upstart  of  the  Left  centre,  a  certain  Simon  Giguet; 
and  having  brought  forward  the  mayor  of  the  town  as 
the  ministerial  candidate,  he  finds  the  siyd  mayor, 
named  Beauvisage,  possessed  of  an  only  daughter, 
rather  pretty,  and  able  to  bring  her  husband  five  hun- 
dred thousand  francs  amassed  in  the  honorable  manu- 
facture of  cotton  night-caps.    Now  you  see,  I  am  sure, 

the  mechanism  of  the  affair. 

« 

As  for  our  own  claims,  we  certainly  do  not  make 
cotton  night-caps,  but  we  make  statues,  —  statues  for 
which  we  are  decorated  with  the  Legion  of  honor ; 
religious  statues,  inaugurated  with  great  pomp  by 
Monseigneur  the  bishop  of  the  diocese  and  all  the 
constituted  authorities;  statues,  or  rather  a  statue, 
which  the  whole  population  of  the  town  has  flocked  to 
the  Ursuline  convent  to  behold,  where  Mesdames  the 


272  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

nuus,  not  a  little  puffed  up  with  this  magnificent  addi- 
tion to  their  bijou  of  a  chapel,  have  kept  their  house 
and  their  oratory  open  to  all  comers  for  this  whole 
day.     Is  not  that  likely  to  popularize  our  candidacy? 

This  evening,  to  crown  the  ceremony  of  inaugurating 
our  Saint-Ursula,  we  give  in  our  chateau  of  Arcis  a 
banquet  to  fifty  guests,  among  whom  we  have  had  the 
malice  to  invite  (with  the  chief  inhabitants  of  the 
place)  all  the  ministerial  functionaries  and,  above  all, 
the  ministerial  candidate.  But,  in  view  of  our  own 
declared  candidacy,  we  feel  pretty  well  assured  that 
the  latter  will  not  respond  to  the  invitation.  So  much 
the  better !  more  room  for  others ;  and  the  missing 
guests,  whose  names  will  be  made  known  on  the  mor- 
row, will  be  convicted  of  a  servilism  which  will,  we 
think,  injure  their  influence  with  the  population. 

Yesterday  we  paid  a  visit  at  the  chateau  de  Cinq- 
Cygne,  where  d'Arthez  presented  us,  in  the  first  place, 
to  the  Princesse  de  Cadignan,  who  is  wonderfully  well 
preserved.  Both  she  and  the  old  Marquise  de  Cinq- 
Cygne  received  Dorlange — I  should  say,  Sallenauve  — 
in  the  warmest  manner.  It  was  from  them  that  we 
learned  the  history  of  Monsieur  Maxime  de  Trailles' 
njission  and  its  present  results.  It  seems  that  on  his 
arrival  the  ministerial  agent  received  some  attentions 
at  Cinq-Cygne,  —  mere  floating  sticks,  to  discover  the 
set  of  his  current.  He  evidently  flattered  himself  that 
he  should  find  support  at  Cinq-Cygne  for  his  election- 
eering intrigue  ;  which  is  so  far  from  being  the  case 
that  Due  Georges  de  Maufrigneuse,  to  whom,  as  a 
Jockey  Club  comrade,  he  told  all  his  projects,  gave 
us  the  information  about  them  which  I  have  now  given 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  273 

to  you,  and  which,  if  you  will  be  so  kind,  I  should  like 
you  to  make  over  to  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade. 


May  12th. 

The  dinner  has  taken  place,  madame ;  it  was  mag- 
nificently served,  and  Arcis  will  talk  about  it  for  some 
time  to  come.  Sallenauve  has  in  that  organist  (who, 
by  the  bye,  showed  his  talent  on  the  organ  admirably 
during  the  ceremony  of  inauguration)  a  sort  of  steward 
and  factotum  who  leaves  all  the  Vatels  of  the  world 
far  behind  him ;  he  would  never  have  fallen  on  his 
sword  for  lack  of  a  fish !  Colored  lamps,  garlands, 
draperies,  decorated  the  dining-room ;  even  fireworks 
were  provided ;  nothing  was  wanting  to  the  fete,  which 
lasted  to  a  late  hour  in  the  gardens  of  the  chateau, 
where  the  populace  danced  and  drank  to  its  heart's 
content. 

Nearly  all  the  invited  guests  came  except  those  we 
desired  to  compromise.  The  invitations  having  been 
sent  at  short  notice,  it  was  amusing  to  read  the  notes 
and  letters  of  excuses,  which  Sallenauve  ordered  to  be 
brought  to  him  in  the  salon  as  they  arrived.  As  he 
opened  each  he  took  care  to  say :  ''  This  is  from  Mon- 
sieur the  sub-prefect;  this  from  the  procureur-da-roi ; 
this  from  Monsieur  Vinet  the  substitute,  expressing 
regret  that  they  cannot  accept  the  invitation."  All 
these  concerted  refusals  were  received  with  smiles  and 
whispers  by  the  company ;  but  when  a  letter  arrived 
from  Beauvisage,  and  Sallenauve  read  aloud  the  ''  im- 
possibility in  which  he  found  himself  to  correspond  to 
his  politeness,"  the  hilarity  grew  noisy  and  general, 

18 


274  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

and  was  only  stopped  by  the  entrance  of  Monsieur 
Martener,  examining-judge,  who  performed  an  act  of 
courage  in  coming  to  the  dinner  which  his  colleagues  de- 
clined. We  must  remark,  however,  that  an  examining- 
judge  has  two  sides  to  him.  On  that  of  judge  he  is 
irremovable;  he  can  only  be  deprived  of  the  slight 
increase  of  salary  he  receives  as  an  examiner  and  of  the 
privilege  of  signing  warrants  and  questioning  thieves, 
—  splendid  rights  of  which  the  chancellor  can  mulct 
him  by  a  stroke  of  his  pen.  But  allowing  that  Mon- 
sieur Martener  was  only  semi-brave,  he  was  greeted  on 
this  occasion  as  a  full  moon. 

The  Due  de  Maufrigneuse,  d'Arthez,  and  Monsei- 
gneur  the  bishop,  who  was  staying  at  Cinq-Cygne  for  a 
few  days,  were  all  present,  and  this  made  more  notice- 
able the  absence  of  one  man,  namely,  Gre\'in,  whose 
excuse,  sent  earlier  in  the  day,  was  not  read  to  the 
company.  The  non-appearance  of  the  Comte  de  Gon- 
dreville  was  explained  by  the  recent  death  of  his  grand- 
son, Charles  Keller ;  and  in  sending  the  invitation 
Sallenauve  had  been  careful  to  let  him  know  he  should 
understand  a  refusal.  But  that  Gr^vin,  the  count's 
right  arm,  should  absent  himself,  seemed  to  show  that 
he  and  his  patron  were  convinced  of  the  probable  elec- 
tion of  Beauvisage,  and  would  have  no  Intercourse  with 
the  new  candidate. 

The  dinner  being  given  in  honor  of  Saint-Ursula's 
installation,  which  could  not  be  celebrated  by  a  ban- 
quet in  the  convent,  Sallenauve  had  a  fine  opportunity 
for  the  following  toast :  — 

"To  the  Mother  of  the  poor;  the  noble  and  saintly 
spirit  which,  for  fifty  years,  has  shone  on  Champagne, 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  275 

and  to  which  we  owe  the  vast  number  of  distinguished 
and  accomplished  women  who  adorn  this  beautiful 
region  of  our  country.'* 

If  you  knew,  as  I  do,  madame,  what  a  forlorn,  beg- 
garly region  Champagne  is,  you  would  say,  or  some- 
thing like  it,  that  Sallenauve  is  a  rascally  fellow,  and 
that  the  passion  to  enter  the  legislature  makes  a  man 
capable  of  shocking  deceit.  Was  it  worth  while,  in 
fact,  for  a  man  who  usually  respects  himself  to  boldly 
tell  a  lie  of  criminal  dimensions,  when  a  moment  later  a 
little  unforeseen  circumstance  occurred  which  did  more 
than  all  the  speeches  ever  uttered  to  commend  him  to 
the  sympathy  of  the  electors? 

You  told  me,  madame,  that  your  son  Armand  found 
a  strong  likeness  to  the  portraits  of  Danton  in  our 
friend  Sallenauve;  and  it  seems  that  the  boy's  remark 
was  true,  for  several  persons  present  who  had  known 
the  great  revolutionist  during  his  lifetime  made  the 
same  observation.  Laurent  Goussard,  who,  as  I  told 
you  in  a  former  letter,  was  Danton's  friend,  was  also, 
in  a  way,  his  brother-in-law;  for  Danton,  who  was 
something  of  a  gallant,  had  been  on  close  terms  for 
several  years  with  the  miller's  sister.  Well,  the  like- 
ness must  be  striking,  for  after  dinner,  while  we  were 
taking  our  coffee,  the  worthy  Goussard,  whose  head 
was  a  little  warmed  by  the  fumes  of  wine,  came  up  to 
Sallenauve  and  asked  him  whether  he  was  certain  he 
had  made  no  mistake  about  his  father,  and  could 
honestly  declare  that  Danton  had  nothing  to  do  with 
his  making. 

Sallenauve  took  the  matter  gayly,  and  answered 
arithmetically,  — 


276  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

"Danton  died  April  5,  1794.  To  be  his  son,  I  must 
have  been  born  i>o  later  than  January,  1795,  which 
would  make  me  forty-four  years  old  to-day.  But  the 
register  of  my  birth,  and  I  somewhat  hope  my  face, 
make  me  out  exactly  thirty." 

"  Yes,  you  are  right,"  said  Laurent  Goussard ; 
"figures  demolish  my  idea;  but  no  matter, — we'll 
vote  for  you  all  the  same." 

I  think  the  man  is  right ;  this  chance  resemblance  is 
likely  to  have  great  weight  in  the  election.  You  must 
remember,  madame,  that,  in  spite  of  the  fatal  facts 
which  cling  about  his  memory,  Danton  is  not  an  object 
of  horror  and  execration  in  Arcis,  where  he  was  born 
and  brought  up.  In  the  first  place  time  has  purged 
him  ;  his  grand  character  and  powerful  intellect  remain, 
and  the  people  are  proud  of  their  compatriot.  In  Arcis 
they  talk  of  Danton  as  in  Marseilles  they  talk  of  Can- 
nebiere.  Fortunate,,  therefore,  is  our  candidate's  like- 
ness to  this  demigod,  the  worship  of  whom  is  not  confined 
to  the  town,  but  extends  to  the  surrounding  country. 

These  voters  extra  muros  are  sometimes  curiously 
simple-minded,  and  obvious  contradictions  trouble 
them  not  at  all.  Some  agents  sent  into  the  adjacent 
districts  have  used  this  fancied  resemblance ;  and  as  in 
a  rural  propaganda  the  object  is  less  to  strike  fair  than 
to  strike  hard,  Laurent  Goussard's  version,  apocryphal 
as  it  is,  is  hawked  about  the  country  villages  with  a 
coolness  that  admits  of  no  contradiction. 

While  this  pretended  revolutionary  origin  is  advan- 
cing our  friend's  prospects  in  one  direction,  in  another 
the  tale  put  forth  to  the  worthy  voters  whom  it  is  desir- 
able to  entice  is  different,  but  truer  and  not  less  striking 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  277 

to  the  minds  of  the  country-people.  This  is  the  gentle- 
man, they  are  told,  who  has  bought  the  chttteau  of 
Arcis ;  and  as  the  chateau  of  Arcis  stands  high  above 
the  town  and  is  known  to  all  the  country  round,  it  is  to 
these  simple  folk  a  species  of  symbol.  They  are  always 
ready  to  return  to  memories  of  the  past,  which  is  much 
less  dead  and  buried  than  people  suppose ;  ''  Ah  !  he  's 
the  seigneur  of  the  chateau,"  they  say. 

This,  madame,  is  how  the  electoral  kitchen  is  car- 
ried on  and  the  way  in  which  a  deputy  is  cooked. 

XVI.     MARIE-G ASTON    TO    THE   COMTESSE    DE    l'eSTORADE. 

Arcis-sur-Aube,  May  15,  1839. 

Madame,  —  You  do  me  the  honor  to  say  that  my 
letters  amuse  you,  and  you  tell  me  not  to  fear  that  I 
send  too  many. 

We  are  no  longer  at  the  H6tel  de  la  Poste,  having 
left  it  for  the  chateau ;  but  thanks  to  the  rivalry  exist- 
ing between  the  two  inns,  the  Poste  and  the  Mulet,  in 
the  latter  of  which  Monsieur  de  Trailles  has  established 
his  headquarters,  we  are  kept  informed  of  what  is  going 
on  in  the  town  and  among  our  enemies.  Since  our 
departure,  as  our  late  landlord  informs  us,  a  Parisian 
journalist  has  arrived  at  his  hotel.  This  individual, 
whose  name  I  do  not  know,  at  once  announced  himself 
as  Jack-the-giant-killer,  sent  down  to  reinforce  with 
his  Parisian  vim  and  vigor  the  polemic  which  the  local 
press,  subsidized  by  the  ••'  bureau  of  public  spirit,"  has 
directed  against  us. 

In  that  there  is  nothing  very  grave  or  very  gay; 
sinqe  the  world  was  a  world,  governments  have  always 
found  pens  for  sale,  and  never  have  they  failed  to  buy 


278  The  Deputy  of  Arcls. 

them ;  but  the  comedy  of  this  affair  begins  with  the 
co-arrival  and  the  co-presence  in  the  hotel  of  a  young 
lady  of  very  problematical  virtue.  The  name  of  this 
young  lady  as  it  appears  on  her  passport  is  Made- 
moiselle Chocardelle  ;  but  the  journalist  in  speaking  of 
her  calls  her  Antonia,  or,  when  he  wants  to  treat  her 
with  more  respect,  Mademoiselle  Antonia. 

Now,  what  can  bring  Mademoiselle  Chocardelle  to 
Arcis?  A  pleasure  trip,  you  will  say,  offered  to  her 
by  the  journalist,  who  combines  with  that  object  our 
daily  defamation  and  his  consequent  earnings  from  the 
secret-service  fund  of  the  government.  Not  at  all ; 
Mademoiselle  Chocardelle  has  come  to  Arcis  on  busi- 
ness of  her  own,  — namely,  to  enforce  a  claim. 

It  seems  that  Charles  Keller  before  his  departure  for 
Africa,  where  he  met  a  glorious  death,  drew  a  note  of 
hand,  payable  to  Mademoiselle  Antonia  or  order,  for 
ten  thousand  francs,  "value  received  in  furniture,"  a 
charming  ambiguity,  the  furniture  having  been  received 
by,  and  not  from.  Mademoiselle  Chocardelle,  who  esti- 
mated at  ten  thousand  francs  the  sacrifice  she  made 
in  accepting  it. 

A  few  days  after  Charles  Keller's  death,  the  note 
being  almost  due.  Mademoiselle  Antonia  went  to  the 
counting-room  of  the  Keller  Brothers  to  inquire  about 
its  payment.  The  cashier,  who  is  crabbed,  like  all 
cashiers,  replied  that  he  did  not  see  how  Mademoiselle 
Antonia  had  the  face  to  present  such  a  note ;  at 
any  rate,  the  heads  of  the  house  were  at  Gondreville, 
where  the  whole  family  had  met  after  receiving  the 
fatal  news,  and  he  should  pay  no  such  note  without 
referring  the  matter  to  them. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  279 

"Very  good,  then  I'll  refer  it  to  them  myself," 
replied  Mademoiselle  Antonia.  Thereupon  she  was 
meditating  a  departure  alone  to  Arcis,  when  the  gov- 
ernment felt  the  need  of  insulting  us  with  more  wit  and 
point  than  provincial  journalism  can  muster,  and  so 
confided  that  employment  to  a  middle-aged  journalist 
to  whom  Mademoiselle  Antonia  had,  during  the  absence 
of  Charles  Keller,  shown  some  kindness.  ''  I  am  going 
to  Arcis,"  seems  to  have  been  said  at  the  same  instant 
by  writer  and  lady.  The  most  commonplace  lives  en- 
counter similar  coincidences. 

Now,  madame,  admire  the  manner  in  which  things 
link  together.  Setting  forth  on  a  purely  selfish  finan- 
cial enterprise,  behold  Mademoiselle  Chocardelle  sud- 
denly brought  to  the  point  of  wielding  an  immense 
electoral  influence  !  And  observe  also  that  her  influence 
is  of  a  nature  to  compensate  for  all  the  witty  pin-pricks 
of  her  gallant  companion. 

Mademoiselle's  affair,  it  appears,  hung  fire.  Twice 
she  went  to  Gondreville,  and  was  not  admitted.  The 
journalist  was  busy,  —  partly  with  his  articles,  and 
partly  with  certain  commissions  given  to  him  by  Mon- 
sieur Maxime  de  Trailles,  under  whose  orders  he  was 
told  to  place  himself.  Mademoiselle  Antonia  was 
therefore  much  alone ;  and  in  the  ennui  of  such  soli- 
tude, she  was  led  to  create  for  herself  a  really  des- 
perate amusement. 

A  few  steps  from  the  H6tel  de  la  Poste  is  a  bridge 
across  the  Aube ;  a  path  leads  down  beside  it,  by  a 
steep  incline,  to  the  water's  edge,  which,  being  hidden 
from  the  roadway  above  and  little  frequented,  offers 
peace  and  solitude  to  whoever  may  like  to  dream  there 


280  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

to  the  sound  of  the  rippling  current.  Mademoiselle 
Antonia  at  first  took  a  book  with- her ;  but  books  not 
being,  as  she  says,  in  her  line,  she  looked  about  for 
other  ways  of  killing  her  time,  and  bethought  herself 
of  fishing,  for  which  amusement  the  landlord  of  the 
inn  supplied  her  with  a  rod.  Much  pleased  with  her 
first  successes,  the  pretty  exile  devoted  herself  to  an 
occupation  which  must  be  attractive,  —  witness  the  fa- 
natics that  it  makes ;  and  the  few  persons  who  crossed 
the  bridge  could  admire  at  all  hours  a  charming  naiad 
in  a  flounced  gown  and  a  broad-brimmed  straw  hat, 
engaged  in  fishing  with  the  conscientious  gravity  of  a 
gamin  de  Paris. 

Up  to  this  time  Mademoiselle  Antonia  and  her  fish- 
ing have  had  nothing  to  do  with  our  election ;  but  if 
you  will  recall,  niadame,  in  the  history  of  Don  Quixote 
(which  I  have  heard  you  admire  for  its  common-sense 
and  jovial  reasoning)  the  rather  disagreeable  adventure 
of  Rosinante  and  the  muleteers,  you  will  have  a  fore- 
taste of  the  good  luck  which  the  development  of  Made- 
moiselle Antonia's  new  passion  brought  to  us. 

Our  rival,  Beauvisage,  is  not  only  a  successful  stock- 
ing-maker and  an  exemplary  mayor,  but  he  is  also  a 
model  husband,  having  never  tripped  in  loyalty  to  his 
wife,  whom  he  respects  and  admires.  Every  evening, 
by  her  orders,  he  goes  to  bed  before  ten  o'clock,  while 
Madame  Beauvisage  and  her  daughter  go  into  what 
Arcis  is  pleased  to  call  society.  But  there  is  no  more 
treacherous  water,  they  say,  than  still  water,  just  as 
there  was  nothing  less  proper  and  less  well-behaved 
than  the  calm  and  peaceable  Rosinante  on  the  occasion 
referred  to. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  281 

At  any  rate,  while  making  the  tour  of  his  town 
according  to  his  laudable  ofUcial  habit,  Beauvisage  from 
the  top  of  the  bridge  chanced  to  catch  sight  of  the 
fair  Parisian  who  with  outstretched  arms  and  grace- 
fully bent  body  was  pursuing  her  favorite  pastime.  A 
slight  movement,  the  charming  impatience  with  which 
the  pretty  fisher  twitched  her  line  from  the  water  when 
the  fish  had  not  bitten,  was  perhaps  the  electric  shock 
which  struck  upon  the  heart  of  the  magistrate,  hitherto 
irreproachable.  No  one  can  say,  perhaps,  how  the 
thing  really  came  about.  But  I  ought  to  remark  that 
during  the  interregnum  that  occurred  between  the  mak- 
ing of  socks  and  night-caps  and  the  assumption  of 
municipal  duties,  Beauvisage  himself  had  practised  the 
art  of  fishing  with  a  line  with  distinguished  success. 
Probably  it  occurred  to  him  that  the  poor  young  lady, 
having  more  ardor  than  science,  was  not  going  the 
right  way  to  work,  and  the  thought  of  improving  her 
method  may  have  been  the  real  cause  of  his  apparent 
degeneracy.  However  that  may  be,  it  is  certain  that, 
crossing  the  bridge  in  company  with  her  mother. 
Mademoiselle  Beauvisage  suddenly  cried  out,  like  a 
true  enfant  terrible^  — 

"  Goodness !  there 's  papa  talking  with  that  Parisian 
woman !  " 

To  assure  herself  at  a  glance  of  the  monstrous  fact, 
to  rush  down  the  bank  and  reach  her  husband  (whom 
she  found  with  laughing  lips  and  the  happy  air  of  a 
browsing  sheep),  to  blast  him  with  a  stern  "  What  are 
you  doing  here?"  to  order  his  retreat  to  Arcis  with  the 
air  of  a  queen,  while  Mademoiselle  Ciiocardelle,  first 
astonished   and   then   enlightened   as   to   what   it   all 


282  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

meant,  went  off  into  fits  of  laughter,  took  scarcely  the 
time  I  have  taken  to  tell  it.  Such,  madame,  was  the 
proceeding  by  which  Madame  Beauvisage,  nee  Grevin, 
rescued  her  husband  ;  and  though  that  proceeding  may 
be  called  justifiable,  it  was  certainly  injudicious,  for  be- 
fore night  the  whole  town  had  heard  of  the  catastrophe, 
and  Beauvisage,  arraigned  and  convicted  by  common 
consent  of  deplorable  immorality,  saw  fresh  desertions 
taking  place  in  the  already  winnowed  phalanx  of  his 
partisans. 

However,  the  Gondreville  and  Grevin  side  still  held 
firm,  and — would  you  believe  it,  madame? — it  was 
again  Mademoiselle  Antonia  to  whom  we  owe  the  over- 
throw of  their  last  rampart. 

Here  is  the  tale  of  that  phenomenon  :  Mother  Marie- 
des-Anges  wanted  an  interview  with  the  Comte  de 
Gondreville ;  but  how  to  get  it  she  did  not  know, 
because  to  ask  for  it  was  not,  as  she  thought,  proper. 
Having,  it  appears,  unpleasant  things  to  sa}^  to  him,  she 
did  not  wish  to  bring  the  old  man  to  the  convent 
expressly  to  hear  them ;  such  a  proceeding  seemed  to 
her  uncharitable.  Besides,  things  comminatory  de- 
livered point-blank  will  often  provoke  their  recipient 
instead  of  alarming  him ;  whereas  the  same  things 
slipped  in  sweetly  never  fail  of  their  effect.  Still,  time 
was  passing;  the  election,  as  you  know,  takes  place 
to-morrow,  Sunday,  and  the  preparatory  meeting  of  all 
the  candidates  and  the  electors,  to-night.  The  poor 
dear  saintly  woman  did  not  know  what  course  to  take, 
when  a  little  matter  occurred,  most  flattering  to  her 
vanity,  which  solved  her  doubts.  A  pretty  sinner,  she 
was  told,  who  had  come  to  Arcis  to  "do  "  Monsieur 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  283 

Keller  the  financier,  then  at  Gondreville,  out  of  some 
money,  had  heard  of  the  virtues  and  the  inexhaustible 
kindness  of  Mother  Marie-des-Anges  —  in  short,  she 
regarded  her,  after  Danton,  as  the  most  interesting 
object  of  the  place,  and  deeply  regretted  that  she 
dared  not  ask  to  be  admitted  to  her  presence. 

An  hour  later  the  following  note  was  left  at  the 
Hotel  de  la  Poste  :  — 

Mademoiselle,  —  I  am  told  that  you  desire  to  see  me, 
but  that  you  do  not  know  how  to  accomplish  it.  Nothing  is 
easier.  Ring  the  door-bell  of  my  quiet  house,  ask  to  see  me, 
and  do  not  be  alarmed  at  my  black  robe  and  aged  face.  I 
am  not  one  of  those  who  force  their  advice  upon  pretty  young 
women  who  do  not  ask  for  it,  and  who  may  become  in  time 
greater  saints  than  I.  That  is  the  whole  mystery  of  obtain- 
ing an  interview  with  Mother  Marie-des-Anges,  who  salutes 
you  in  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.     ^ 

An  invitation  so  graciously  given  was  not  to  be  re- 
sisted ;  and  Mademoiselle  Antonia,  after  putting  on  the 
soberest  costume  she  could  get  together,  went  to  the 
convent. 

I  wish  I  could  give  you  the  details  of  that  interview, 
which  must  have  been  curious  ;  but  no  one  was  present, 
and  nothing  was  known  except  what  the  lost  sheep, 
who  returned  in  tears,  told  of  it.  When  the  journalist 
tried  to  joke  her  on  this  conversion.  Mademoiselle 
Antonia  turned  upon  him. 

''  Hold  your  tongue,"  she  said  ;  '*  you  never  in  your 
life  wrote  a  sentence  like  what  she  said  to  me." 
What  did  she  say  to  you?  " 
'Go,  my  child,'  said  that  old  woman,  'the  ways 


(( 


284  The  Deputy  of  Arois, 

of  God  are  beautiful,  and  little  known ;  there  is  often 
more  of  a  saint  in  a  Magdalen  than  in  a  nun.' " 

The  journalist  laughed,  but  scenting  danger  he 
said,  — 

"When  are  you  going  again  to  Gondreville  to  see 
that  Keller?  If  he  doesn't  pay  the  money  soon,  I'll 
hit  him  a  blow  in  some  article,  in  spite  of  all  Maxime 
may  say." 

"  I  don't  play  dirty  tricks  myself,"  replied  Antonia, 
with  dignity. 

"Don't  you?  Do  you  mean  you  are  not  going  to 
present  that  note  again  ?  " 

"^  Not  now,"  replied  the  admirer  and  probably  the 
echo  of  Mother  Marie-des-Anges,  but  using  her  own 
language;  "I  don't  blackmail  a  family  in  affliction. 
I  should  remember  it  on  my  death-bed,  and  doubt 
God's  mercy." 

"Why  don't  you  make  yourself  an  Ursuline,  now 
that  we  are  here  ?  " 

"  Ha,  if  I  only  had  the  courage  !  I  might  be.  happier 
if  I  did.  But,  in  any  case,  I  am  not  going  to  Gondre- 
ville ;  Mother  Marie-des-Anges  has  undertaken  to 
arrange  that  matter  for  me." 

"  Foolish  girl!     Have  you  given  her  that  note?  " 

"  I  wanted  to  tear  it  up,  but  she  prevented  me,  and 
told  me  to  give  it  to  her  and  she  would  arrange  it 
honestly  for  my  interests." 

"  Very  fine !  You  were  a  creditor,  and  now  you  are 
a  beggar." 

"  No,  for  I  have  given  the  money  in  alms.  I  told 
madame  to  keep  it  for  her  poor." 

"  Oh !  if  you  add  the  vice  of  patronizing  convents 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  285 

to  your  other  vice  of  fishing  in  rivers,  j'-ou  will  be  a 
pleasant  girl  to  frequent." 

''You  won't  frequent  me  much  longer,  for  I  go  to- 
night, and  leave  you  to  your  dirty  work." 

''  Bless  me  !  so  you  retire  to  the  Carmelites?  " 

'*The  Carmelites!"  replied  Antonia,  wittily;  "no, 
my  old  fellow,  we  don't  retire  to  the  Carmelites  unless 
we  leave  a  king." 

Such  women,  even  the  most  ignorant,  all  know  the 
story  of  La  Valliere,  whom  they  would  assuredly  have 
made  their  patroness  if  Sister  Louise-of-the-Sacred- 
Mercy  had  been  canonized. 

I  don't  know  how  Mother  Marie-des-Anges  managed 
it,  but  early  this  morning  the  carriage  of  the  old  Comte 
de  Gondreville  stopped  before  the  gate  of  the  convent ; 
and  when  the  count  again  entered  it  he  was  driven  to 
the  office  of  his  friend  Grevin ;  and  later  in  the  day  the 
latter  said  to  several  friends  that  certainly  his  son-in- 
law  was  too  much  of  a  fool,  he  had  compromised  him- 
self with  that  Parisian  woman,  and  would  undoubtedly 
lose  his  election. 

I  am  told  that  the  rectors  of  the  two  parishes  in 
Arcis  have  each  received  a  thousand  crowns  for  their 
poor  from  Mother  Marie-des-Anges,  who  informed  them 
that  it  came  from  a  benefactor  who  did  not  wish  his 
name  known.  Sallenauve  is  furious  because  our  parti- 
sans are  going  about  saying  that  the  money  came  from 
him.  But  when  you  are  running  before  the  wind  you 
can't  mathematically  measure  each  sail,  and  you  some- 
times get  more  of  a  breeze  than  you  really  want. 

Monsieur  Maxime  de  Trailles  makes  no  sign,  but 
there  is  every  reason  to  suppose  that  this  failure  of  his 


286  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

candidate,  which  he  must  see  is  now  inevitable,  will 
bury  both  him  and  his  marriage.  But,  at  any  rate,  he 
is  a  clever  fellow,  who  will  manage  to  get  his  revenge. 

What  a  curious  man,  madame,  this  organist  is!  His 
name  is  that  of  one  of  our  greatest  physicians,  —  though 
they  are  not  related  to  each  other,  —  Bricheteau.  No 
one  ever  showed  more  activity,  more  presence  of  mind, 
more  devotion,  more  intelligence ;  and  there  are  not 
two  men  in  all  Europe  who  can  play  the  organ  as  he 
does.  You  say  you  do  not  want  Nai's  to  be  a  mere 
piano  strummer;  then  I  advise  you  to  let  this  Briche- 
teau teach  her.  He  is  a  man  who  would  show  her 
what  music  really  is  ;  he  will  not  give  himself  airs,  for 
I  assure  you  he  is  as  modest  as  he  is  gifted.  To  Salle- 
nauve  he  is  like  a  little  terrier ;  as  watchful,  as  faith- 
ful, and  I  may  add  as  ugly,  —  if  so  good  and  frank  a 
countenance  as  his  can  ever  be  thought  anything  but 
handsome ! 

XVII.      MARIE-GASTON   TO    MADAME   LA   COMTESSE   DE 


Arcis-sur-Aube,  Sunday,  May  16,  1839. 

Madame,  —  Last  evening  the  preparatory  meeting 
took  place  J  —  a  ridiculous  ceremony,  very  annoying  to 
the  candidates,  which  cannot,  however,  be  avoided. 

Perhaps  it  is  natural  that  before  pledging  themselves 
to  a  man  who  is  to  represent  them  for  four  or  five  years, 
voters  should  want  to  question  him,  and  discover,  if 
possible,  what  he  really  is.  Is  he  a  man  of  intelli- 
gence? Does  he  really  sustain  the  ideas  put  forth 
about  him?    Will  he  be   cordial   and  affable  to   the 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  287 

various  interests  which  may  claim  his  support?  Is  he 
firm  in  character  ?  Can  he  clef  end  his  ideas  —  if  he 
has  any  ?  In  a  word,  will  the  constituency  be  worthily, 
faithfully,  and  honestly  represented?  That  is  the 
serious  and  respectable  aspect  of  this  institution,  which, 
not  being  a  part  of  the  law,  must,  in  order  to  be  so 
firmly  fixed  in  our  customs,  have  a  sound  reason  for 
its  existence. 

But  every  medal  has  its  reverse  ;  as  may  be  seen  in 
these  meetings  of  candidates  with  electors  puffed  up 
by  their  own  self-importance,  eager  to  exercise  for  a 
moment  the  sovereignty  they  are  about  to  delegate  to 
their  deputy,  and  selling  it  as  dearly  as  they  can  to 
him.  Considering  the  impertinence  of  certain  ques- 
tions addressed  to  a  candidate,  it  would  really  seem  as 
if  the  latter  were  a  serf  over  whom  each  elector  had 
rights  of  life  and  death.  Not  a  corner  of  his  private 
life  where  the  unhappy  man  is  safe  from  prying  curi- 
osity. All  things  are  possible  in  the  line  of  preposter- 
ous questioning ;  for  instance  :  Why  does  the  candidate 
prefer  the  wine  of  Champagne  to  the  wine  of  Bor- 
deaux? At  Bordeaux,  where  wine  is  a  religion,  this 
preference  implies  an  idea  of  non-patriotism  and  may 
seriously  affect  the  election.  Many  voters  go  to  these 
meetings  solely  to  enjoy  the  embarrassment  of  the  can- 
didates. Holding  them  as  it  were  in  the  pillory,  they 
play  with  them  like  a  child  with  a  beetle,  an  old  judge 
with  the  criminal  he  examinefs,  or  a  young  surgeon  at 
an  autopsy. 

Others  have  not  such  elevated  tastes;  they  come 
merely  to  enjoy  the  racket,  the  confusion  of  tongues 
which  is  certain  to  take  place  on  such  occasions.    Some 


288  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

see  their  opportunity  to  exhibit  a  choice  talent;  for 
(as  they  say  in  the  reports  of  the  Chamber)  when 
''  the  tumult  is  at  its  height,"  a  cock  is  heard  to  crow 
or  a  dog  to  howl  as  if  his  paw  were  trodden  upon,  — 
noises  that  are  imitated  with  marvellous  accuracy.  But 
truly,  are  not  fools  and  stupid  beings  a  majority  in  the 
world,  and  ought  they  not  to  have  their  representative? 

The  meeting  took  place  in  a  large  dance-hall,  the 
loft  for  the  orchestra  forming  a  sort  of  private  box  to 
which  non-voters  were  admitted,  I  among  the  number. 
Some  ladies  had  already  taken  the  front  seats ;  Madame 
Marion,  aunt  of  Simon  Giguet,  the  Left  centre  candi- 
date; Madame  and  Mademoiselle  Mollot,  wife  and 
daughter  of  the  clerk  of  the  court,  and  some  others 
whose  names  and  position  I  did  not  catch.  Madame 
and  Mademoiselle  Beauvisage  shone  conspicuously, 
like  Brutus  and  Cassius,  by  their  absence. 

Before  the  candidacy  of  Monsieur  Beauvisage  was 
brought  forward  on  the  ministerial  side  after  the  death 
of  Charles  Keller,  that  of  Monsieur  Simon  Giguet  was 
thought  to  be  certain  of  success.  Now,  in  consequence 
of  that  of  our  friend  Sallenauve,  who  has  in  turn 
distanced  Beauvisage,  Giguet  has  fallen  a  step  lower 
still.  His  father,  a  former  colonel  of  the  Empire,  is 
greatly  respected  throughout  this  region.  As  an  ex- 
pression of  regret  for  not  electing  his  son  (accord- 
ing to  all  probabilities),  the  electors  made  him,  by 
acclamation,  chairman  of  the  meeting. 

The  first  candidate  who  was  called  upon  to  speak 
was  Simon  Giguet ;  he  made  a  long-winded  address, 
full  of  commonplaces.  Few  questions  were  asked  him 
which  deserve  a  place  in  the  present  report.  The 
audience  felt  that  the  tug  of  war  was  elsewhere. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  289 

Monsieur  Beaiivisage  was  then  summoned ;  where- 
upon Maitre  Achille  Pigoult  the  notary  rose,  and  asked 
leave  to  make  a  statement. 

'*  Monsieur  le  maire,"  he  said,  *'has,  since  yester- 
day, been  attacked  by — " 

"Ha!  ha!"  derisive  laughter  on  the  part  of  the 
electors. 

Colonel  Giguet  rang  his  bell  repeatedly,  without 
being  able  to  enforce  silence.  At  the  first  lull  Maltre 
Pigoult  resumed,  — 

''I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you,  gentlemen,  that, 
attacked  by  an  indisposition  which,  not  serious  in 
itself  —  " 

Fresh  interruption,  noisier  than  the  first. 

Like  all  military  men,  Colonel  Giguet  is  not  patient 
nor  parliamentary ;  he  therefore  rose  and  called  out 
veliemently,  — 

''  Messieurs,  we  are  not  at  a  circus.  I  request  you 
to  behave  in  a  more  seemly  manner ;  if  not,  I  leave  the 
chair." 

It  is  to  be  supposed  that  men  in  masses  like  to  be 
handled  roughly ;  for  this  lesson  was  greeted  with 
merry  applause,  after  which  silence  appeared  to  be 
firmly  re-established. 

"  I  regret  to  inform  you,"  began  Maitre  Achille 
Pigoult,  varying  his  formula  for  the  third  time,  "  that, 
attacked  by  an  indisposition  happily  not  serious,  which 
may  confine  him  to  his  chamber  —  " 

''  Throat  trouble,"  suggested  a  voice. 

*'  —  our  venerable  and  excellent  mayor,"  continued 
Achille  Pigoult,  taking  no  notice  of  the  interruption, 
'*  is  unable  to  be  present  at  this  meeting.     Madame 

19 


290  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

Beauvisage,  with  whom  I  have  just  had  the  honor  of 
an  interview,  requests  me  to  inform  you  that,  for  the 
present.  Monsieur  Beauvisage  renounces  the  honor  of 
receiving  your  suffrages,  and  requests  those  of  you  who 
have  given  him  your  intelligent  sympathy  to  transfer 
your  votes  to  Monsieur  Simon  Giguet." 

This  Achille  Pigoult  is  a  malicious  fellow,  who  in- 
tentionally brought  in  the  name  of  Madame  Beauvisage 
to  exhibit  her  conjugal  sovereignty.  But  the  assembly 
were  really  too  provincial  to  catch  the  meaning  of  that 
little  bit  of  treachery.  Besides,  in  the  provinces,  women 
take  part  in  the  most  virile  affairs  of  the  men.  The 
well-known  saying  of  the  vicar's  old  housekeeper,  "  We 
don't  say  masses  at  that  price,"  would  pass  without 
comment  in  Champagne. 

At  last  came  Sallenauve.  I  was  struck  with  the 
ease  and  quiet  dignity  of  his  manner.  That  is  a  very 
reassuring  pledge,  madame,  of  his  conduct  under  more 
trying  circumstances  ;  for  when  a  man  rises  to  speak  it 
makes  but  little  difference  who  and  what  his  audience 
are.  To  an  orator  goaded  by  fear,  great  lords  and 
porters  are  precisely  the  same  thing.  They  are  eyes 
that  look  at  you,  ears  that  hear  you.  Individuals  are 
not  there,  only  one  huge  being,  —  an  assembly,  felt  as 
a  mass,  without  analyzing  the  elements. 

After  enumerating  briefly  the  ties  which  connected 
him  with  this  region,  slipping  in  as  he  did  so  an  adroit 
and  dignified  allusion  to  his  birth  which  "  was  not  like 
that  of  others,"  Sallenauve  stated  clearly  his  political 
ideas.  A  Republic  he  thought  the  finest  of  all  govern- 
ments ;  but  he  did  not  believe  it  possible  to  establish 
one  in  France  ;  consequently,  he  did  not  desire  it.     He 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  291 

thought  tliat  a  truly  parliamentary  government,  in 
which  court  influence  should  be  so  vigorously  muzzled 
that  nothing  need  be  feared  from  its  tendency  to  in- 
terference and  caballing  would  best  conduce  to  the 
dignity  and  welfare  of  the  nation.  Liberty  and 
equality,  the  two  great  principles  that  triumphed  in  '89, 
would  obtain  from  such  a  government  the  strongest 
guarantees.  As  to  the  manoeuvring  of  the  royal  power 
against  those  principles,  it  was  not  for  institutions  to 
check  it,  but  for  men,  —  customs,  public  opinion, 
rather  than  laws;  and  for  himself,  Sallenauve,  he 
should  ever  stand  in  the  breach  as  a  livinoj  obstacle. 
He  declared  himself  a  warm  partisan  of  free  education  ; 
believed  that  greater  economy  might  be  exercised  in 
the  budget ;  that  too  many  functionaries  were  attached 
to  the  government ;  and,  above  all,  that  the  court  was 
too  largely  represented  in  the  Chamber.  To  maintain 
his  independence  he  was  firmly  resolved  to  accept  no 
post  and  no  favors  from  the  government.  Neither 
ought  those  who  might  elect  him  to  expect  that  he 
would  ever  take  steps  on  their  behalf  which  were  not 
warranted  by  reason  and  by  justice.  It  was  said  that 
the  word  impossible  was  not  French.  Yet  there  was 
an  impossibility  by  which  he  took  pride  in  being  stopped 
—  that  of  injustice,  and  that  of  disloyalty,  even  the 
faintest,  to  the  Right.     [Loud  applau.se.] 

Silence  being  once  more  restored,  — 

''  Monsieur,"  said  one  of  the  electors,  after  obtain- 
ing the  floor  from  the  chairman,  *'  you  say  that  you  will 
accept  no  post  under  government.  Does  not  that 
imply  reproach  to  public  functionaries?  My  name  is 
Godivet ;  I  am  registrar  of  the  archives,  but  I  do  not 


292  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

consider  that  a  reason  why  I  should  incur  the  contempt 
of  my  fellow-citizens." 

Sallenauve  replied,  — 

'*  I  am  happy,  monsieur,  to  learn  that  the  govern- 
ment has  invested  a  man  like  you  with  functions  whicli 
you  fulfil,  I  am  sure,  with  perfect  uprightness  and 
great  ability ;  but  I  venture  to  ask  if  you  rose  to  your 
present  position  at  one  jump?  " 

"Certainly  not,  monsieur;  I  began  by  being  a 
supernumerary  for  three  years ;  after  that  I  passed 
through  all  the  grades ;  and  I  can  show  that  favor  had 
nothing  to  do  with  my  promotion." 

"Then,  monsieur,  what  would  you  say  if  with  my 
rank  as  deputy  (supposing  that  I  obtain  the  suffrages 
of  this  arrondissement)  I,  who  have  never  been  a 
supernumerary  and  never  passed  through  any  grades, 
and  whose  only  claim  upon  the  administration  is  that 
of  having  voted  for  it,  —  what  would  you  say  if  I  were 
suddenly  appointed  over  your  head  as  the  director- 
general  of  your  department?" 

"I  should  say  —  I  should  say,  monsieur,  that  the 
choice  was  a  good  one,  because  the  king  himself  would 
have  made  it." 

"  No,  monsieur,  you  would  not  say  it,  or  if  you  said 
it  aloud,  which  I  scarcely  think  possible,  you  would 
think  in  your  heart  that  the  choice  was  ridiculous  and 
unjust.  '  How  the  devil,'  you  would  say  to  yourself, 
'  could  this  man,  this  sculptor,  know  anything  about  the 
intricate  business  of  registering  archives  ? '  And  you 
would  be  right  in  condemning  such  royal  caprice ;  for 
what  becomes  of  long  and  honorable  services,  justly 
acquired  rights,   and  steady  promotion  under  such  a 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  293 

system  of  arbitrary  choice  ?  It  is  that  I  may  not  be 
the  accomplice  of  this  crying  abuse,  because  I  think  it 
neither  just  nor  honest  nor  useful  to  obtain  in  this 
way  important  public  functions,  that  1  denounce  the 
system  and  bind  myself  to  accept  no  office.  Is  this, 
monsieur,  pouring  contempt  on  public  functions?  Is 
it  not  rather  lifting  them  to  higher  honor?" 

Monsieur  Godivet  declared  himself  satisfied,  and 
said  no  more. 

'^  Ah  (^a!  monsieur,"  cried  another  elector,  after 
demanding  the  floor  in  a  rather  tipsy  voice,  ''  you  say 
you  will  ask  no  favors  for  your  constituents;  then 
what  good  will  you  be  to  us?" 

"  My  friend,  I  did  not  say  I  would  ask  nothing  for 
my  constituents.  I  said  I  would  ask  nothing  but  what 
was  just ;  but  that,  I  may  add,  I  shall  ask  with  en- 
ergy and  perseverance,  for  that  is  how  justice  should 
be  followed  up." 

"  But,"  persisted  the  voter,  "  there  are  various  ways 
of  doing  justice ;  witness  the  suit  I  was  made  to  lose 
against  Jean  Remy,  with  whom  I  had  trouble  about  a 
boundary  —  " 

Colonel  Giguet,  interrupting,  — 

"  Come,  come,  you  are  not  going,  I  hope,  to  talk 
about  your  private  affairs,  and  speak  disrespectfully 
of  magistrates?  " 

The  voter  resumed,  — 

'*  Magistrates,  colonel,  I  respect,  for  I  was  one  my- 
self for  six  months  in  '93,  and  I  know  the  law.  But, 
returning  to  my  point,  I  ask  monsieur,  who  is  here  to 
answer  questions,  to  me  as  well  as  to  others,  what  he 
thinks  about  tobacco  licenses." 


294  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

"  My  opinion  on  tobacco  licenses !  That  is  rather 
difficult  to  formulate ;  I  can,  however,  say  that,  if  my 
information  is  correct,  they  are  usually  very  well 
distributed." 

"Hey!  hey!  you're  a  man,  you!"  cried  the  in- 
ebriate elector,  '^  and  I  '11  vote  for  you,  for  they  can't 
fool  you, — no!  But  they  do  give  those  licenses  all 
wrong !  Look  at  that  daughter  of  Jean  Remy.  Bad 
neighbor !  Never  owned  anything  but  his  cart,  and 
fights  every  day  with  his  wife  — " 

"  But,  my  good  fellow,"  said  the  chairman,  interpos- 
ing, "you  are  abusing  the  patience  of  this  assembly." 

"  No,  no  !  let  him  talk  !  "  cried  voices  from  all  parts 
of  the  room. 

The  voter  was  amusing,  and  Sallenauve  himself 
seemed  to  let  the  chairman  know  he  would  like  to  see 
what  the  man  was  driving  at. 

The  elector,  being  allowed  to  continue,  went  on  :  — 

"  I  was  going  to  say,  with  due  respect  to  you, 
colonel,  about  that  daughter  of  Jean  Remy's,  —  a  man 
I  '11  pursue  to  hell,  for  my  bounds  were  in  their  right 
place,  and  them  experts  was  all  wrong.  Well !  what 
did  that  slut  do?  Left  her  father  and  mother  and 
went  to  Paris  !  What  did  she  do  there?  I  did  n't  go 
to  see,  but  I  'm  told  she  made  acquaintance  with  a 
deputy,  and  has  got  the  tobacco  license  for  the  rue 
Mouffetard,  the  longest  street  in  Paris.  But  I  'd  like  to 
see  my  wife,  widow  of  an  honest  man,  doubled  up  with 
rheumatism  for  having  slept  in  the  woods  during  that 
terror  in  1815,  —  I  'd  like  to  see  my  poor  widow  get  a 
license !  '* 

"  But  you  are  not  dead  yet,"  they  shouted  to  him 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  295 

from  all  parts  of  the  room.  The  colonel,  meantime, 
to  put  an  end  to  the  burlesque  scene,  nodded  to  a  little 
confectioner  who  was  waiting  for  the  floor,  a  well- 
known  Republican.  The  new  questioner,  in  a  falsetto 
voice,  put  the  following  insidious  question  to  the  can- 
didate, —  a  question  which  might,  by  the  way,  be 
called  national  in  Arcis,  — 

''  What  does  monsieur  think  of  Danton?" 

'•  Monsieur  Dauphin,"  said  the  chairman,  "  I  have 
the  honor  to  remind  you  that  Danton  belongs  to 
history." 

"To  the  Pantheon  of  history,  monsieur;  that  is  the 
proper  expression." 

*'  Well,  history,  or  the  Pantheon  of  history,  as  you 
please;  but  Danton  is  irrelevant  here." 

*'  Permit  me,  Mr.  Chairman,"  said  Sallenauve, 
"though  the  question  does  not  seem  to  have  much 
bearing  on  the  purpose  of  this  meeting,  I  cannot 
forego  the  opportunity  thus  given  me  to  give  proof  of 
the  impartiality  and  independence  with  which  I  can 
judge  that  great  memory,  the  fame  of  which  still 
echoes  in  this  town." 

"  Hear !  hear !  "  cried  the  assembly,  almost  unani- 
mously. 

"  I  am  firmly  convinced,"  resumed  Sallenauve,  *'  that 
if  Danton  had  been  born  in  a  calm  and  peaceful  epoch 
like  our  own,  he  would  have  shown  himself,  what  in 
fact  he  was,  a  good  father,  a  good  husband,  a  warm 
and  faithful  friend,  a  man  of  kindly  temper,  who,  by 
the  force  of  his  great  talents,  would  have  risen  to  some 
eminent  place  in  the  State  and  in  society." 

"  Yes,  yes !  bravo !  very  good  !  " 


296  The  Deputy  of  Areis. 

"Born,  on  the  contrary,  in  troublous  times,  and 
amid  the  storm  of  unchained  passions,  Danton  was 
better  constituted  than  others  to  kindle  the  flame  of 
that  atmosphere  of  fire.  Danton  was  the  torch  that 
fired ;  his  scarlet  glare  lent  itself  only  too  readily  to 
scenes  of  blood  and  horror  which  I  must  not  recall. 
But,  they  said,  the  national  independence  was  at 
stake,  traitors  and  dissemblers  must  be  awed,  —  in  a 
word,  a  cruel  and  awful  sacrifice  was  necessary  for  the 
public  weal.  Messieurs,  I  do  not  accept  that  theory. 
To  kill,  without  the  necessity  demonstrated  a  score 
of  times  of  legitimate  defence,  to  kill  women,  chil- 
dren, prisoners,  unarmed  men,  was  a  crime,  —  a  crime, 
look  at  it  how  you  will,  that  was  execrable ;  those  who 
ordered  it,  those  who  consented  to  it,  those  who  exe- 
cuted it  are,  to  my  mind,  deserving  of  the  same 
reprobation." 

I  wish  I  could  give  you  an  idea,  madame,  of  the  tone 
and  expression  of  Sallenauve  as  he  uttered  this  anath- 
ema. You  know  how  his  face  is  transfigured  when  an 
ardent  thought  comes  into  his  mind.  The  assemblage 
was  mute  and  gloomy.  Evidently  he  had  wounded  its 
sensibilities ;  but,  under  the  curb  of  his  powerful  hand, 
it  dared  not  throw  up  its  head. 

''But,"  he  continued,  "to  all  consummated  and 
irreparable  crime  there  are  two  issues,  —  repentance 
and  expiation.  His  repentance  Danton  did  not  utter, 
—  he  was  too  proud  a  man,  — but  he  acted  it.  He  was 
the  first,  to  the  sound  of  that  axe  falling  without  pity 
and  without  respite,  —  the  first,  at  the  risk  of  his  own 
head  being  the  next  victim,  —  to  call  for  a  '  committee 
of  mercy.'     It  was  the  sure,  the  infallible  means  of 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  297 

bringing  him  to  expiation  ;  and  you  all  know  whether, 
when  that  day  of  expiation  came,  he  quailed  before  it. 
Passing  through  death,  —  won  by  his  courageous  effort 
to  stop  the  effusion  of  blood,  —  it  may  be  truly  said 
that  the  face  and  the  memory  of  Dauton  have  washed 
off  the  bloody  stain  which  September  put  upon  them. 
Committed,  at  the  age  of  thirty-five,  to  the  judgment 
of  posterity,  Danton  has  left  us  the  memory  of  a  great 
intellect,  a  strong  and  powerful  character,  noble  pri- 
vate qualities,  more  than  one  generous  action,  —  all  de- 
rived from  his  own  being ;  whereas  the  bloody  errors 
he  committed  were  the  contagion  of  his  epoch.  In  a 
word,  with  men  of  his  quality,  unjust  would  be  the 
justice  which  does  not  temper  itself  with  mercy.  And 
here,  messieurs,  you  have  in  your  midst  —  better  than 
you,  better  than  I,  better  than  all  orators  and  histo- 
rians —  a  woman  who  has  weighed  and  understood 
Danton,  and  who  says  to  the  pitiless,  with  the  impulse 
of  her  charity,  '  He  has  gone  to  God  ;  let  us  pray  for 
him.' " 

The  trap  thus  avoided  by  this  happy  allusion  to 
Mother  Marie-des-Anges,  and  the  assembly  evidently 
satisfied,  it  might  be  supposed  that  the  candidate  had 
come  to  the  end  of  his  baiting.  The  colonel  was  even 
preparing  to  pass  to  the  vote,  when  several  electors 
sprang  up,  declaring  that  two  important  explanations 
were  still  required  from  the  candidate.  He  had  said 
that  he  should  ever  be  found  an  obstacle  to  all 
attempts  of  the  royal  power  to  subvert  our  institu- 
tions. What  did  he  mean  by  such  resistance?  Was 
it  armed  resistance,  the  resistance  of  riots  and 
barricades  ? 


298  The  Beauty  of  Arcis. 

"Barricades,"  replied  Sallenauve,  "have  nearly 
always  seemed  to  me  machines  which  turned  of  them- 
selves and  crushed  the  men  who  raised  them.  We 
must  believe  that  in  the  nature  of  riots  there  is  some- 
thing which  serves  the  interests  of  the  government,  for 
I  have  invariably  heard  the  police  accused  of  inciting 
them.  My  resistance,  that  which  I  spoke  of,  will  ever 
be  a  legal  resistance,  pursued  by  legal  means,  by  the 
press,  by  the  tribune,  and  with  patience,  —  that  great 
force  granted  to  the  oppressed  and  to  the  vanquished. 

If  you  knew  Latin,  madame,  I  should  say  to  you, 
In  Cauda  venenum  ;  which  means,  "  In  the  tail  of  the 
serpent  is  its  venom,"  —  a  remark  of  antiquity  which 
modern  science  does  not  admit.  Monsieur  de  I'Esto- 
rade  was  not  mistaken  ;  Sallenauve's  private  life  w^as 
destined  to  be  ransacked,  and,  no  doubt  under  the 
inspiration  of  the  virtuous  Maxime  de  Trailles,  the 
second  question  put  to  our  friend  was  about  the  hand- 
some Italian  woman  said  to  be  hidden  by  him  in  his 
house  in  Paris. 

Sallenauve  showed  no  embarrassment  at  being  thus 
interpellated.  He  merely  asked  whether  the  assembly 
would  think  proper  to  spend  its  time  in  listening  to  a 
romantic  story  in  which  there  was  no  scandal. 

But  here  comes  Sallenauve  himself;  he  tells  me 
that  the  electoral  college  is  formed  in  a  manner  that 
leaves  little  doubt  of  his  election.  I  leave  my  pen 
to  him,  to  tell  you  the  romantic  tale,  already,  I  be- 
lieve, interrupted  on  several  occasions.  He  will  close 
this  letter. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  299 


XVIII.     CHARLES    DE    SALLENAUVE    TO    THE    COMTESSE    DE 
L*ESTORADE. 

7  p.  M. 

Madame,  —  The  rather  abrupt  manner  in  which  I 
parted  from  you  and  from  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  the 
evening  of  our  visit  to  Armand's  school,  has  been 
explained  to  you  by  the  preoccupations  of  all  sorts 
to  which  at  that  moment  I  was  a  victim.  Marie- 
Gaston  tells  me  that  he  has  kept  you  informed  of  the 
subsequent  events. 

I  acknowledge  that  in  the  restless  and  agitated  state 
of  mind  in  which  I  then  was,  the  sort  of  belief  which 
Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  appeared  to  give  to  the  scan- 
dal which  he  mentioned  caused  me  great  displeasure 
and  some  surprise.  How,  thought  I,  is  it  possible  that 
a  man  of  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade's  morality  and  intel- 
lect can  a  priori  suppose  me  capable  of  such  disorder, 
when  he  sees  me  anxious  to  give  to  my  life  all  the 
weight  and  consideration  which  the  respect  of  others 
alone  can  bestow?  Only  a  few  moments  before  this 
painful  conversation  I  had  been  on  the  point  of  making 
you  a  confidence  which  would,  I  presume,  have  pro- 
tected me  against  the  unfortunate  impression  which 
Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  conveyed  to  your  mind.  As 
for  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  himself,  I  was,  I  confess, 
so  annoyed  at  seeing  the  careless  manner  in  which  he 
made  himself  the  echo  of  a  calumny  against  which  I 
felt  he  ought  rather  to  have  defended  me  that  I  did 
not  deign  to  make  any  explanation  to  him.  I  now 
withdraw  that  word,  but  it  was  then  the  true  expression 
of  a  displeasure  keenly  felt. 


300  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

In  the  course  of  my  electoral  contest,  I  have  been 
obliged  to  make  public  the  justification  I  did  not  make 
to  you  ;  and  I  have  had  the  satisfaction  of  finding  that 
men  in  masses  are  more  capable  than  individuals  of  un- 
derstanding generous  impulses  and  of  distinguishing  the 
honest  language  of  truth.  Here  are  the  facts  which  I 
related,  but  more  briefly  and  with  less  detail,  to  my 
electors. 

A  few  months  before  my  departure  from  Eome,  I 
was  in  a  cafe  frequented  by  the  pupils  of  the  Academy, 
when  an  Italian  musician,  named  Benedetto,  came  in, 
as  he  usually  did  every  evening.  Nominally  he  was  a 
musician  and  a  tolerable  one ;  but  we  had  been  warned 
that  he  was  also  a  spy  of  the  Roman  police.  However 
that  might  be,  he  was  very  amusing  ;  and  as  we  cared 
nothing  for  the  police,  we  not  only  endured  but  we  en- 
couraged his  visits,  —  which  was  not  hard  to  do  in  view 
of  his  passion  for  poncio  spongato  and  spuma  di  latte. 

On  his  entrance  one  evening,  a  member  of  our  party 
asked  him  who  was  the  woman  with  whom  he  had  met 
him  that  morning. 

"  My  wife,  signore,"  answered  the  Italian. 

"  Yours,  Benedetto !  —  you  the  husband  of  such  a 
beauty !  " 

"  Si,  signore." 

"  Nonsense!  you  are  ugly  and  drunken,  and  people 
say  you  are  a  police  spy  ;  but  she,  on  the  contrary,  is 
as  handsome  as  Diana  the  huntress." 

''  I  charmed  her  with  my  talent ;  she  adores  me." 

"  Well,  if  she  is  your  wife,  make  her  pose  to  our 
friend  here,  Dorlange,  who  wants  a  model  for  his 
Pandora.     He  can't  get  a  finer  one." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  801 

*'That  can  be  managed,"  replied  tlie  Italian. 

The  next  day  I  was  in  my  studio  in  company  with 
several  young  painters  and  sculptors  when  Benedetto 
came  in  accompanied  by  a  woman  of  rare  beauty, 
whom  I  need  not  describe,  for  you  have  seen  her, 
madame,  at  my  house.  A  joyous  hurrah  greeted  the 
Italian,  who  said  to  me,  — 

''^Ecco  la  Pandora!  Hey!  what  do  you  think  of 
her?" 

**  Marvellously  beautiful ;  but  w^ould  she  pose?  " 

^^Pooh!"  exclaimed  Benedetto,  with  an  air  which 
seemed  to  say :  *'  I  'd  like  to  see  her  refuse." 

*'  But,"  I  remarked,  "  she  would  cost  too  much,  a 
model  of  her  beauty." 

''No;  you  need  only  make  my  bust  —  just  a  plas- 
ter cast  —  and  give  it  to  her." 

''  Very  good,"  I  said.  Then  I  told  my  friends  to  go 
and  leave  us  alone  together. 

Nobody  minded  me.  Judging  the  wife  by  the  hus- 
band, the  eager  young  fellows  pressed  round  her  ;  while 
she,  wounded  and  angered  by  the  audacity  of  their 
eyes,  looked  like  a  caged  panther  irritated  by  peasants 
at  a  fair. 

Going  up  to  her  and  pulling  her  aside,  Benedetto 
told  her  in  Italian  that  I  wanted  to  copy  her  from 
head  to  foot,  and  she  must  then  and  there  take  off  her 
clothes.  The  woman  gave  him  one  withering  look, 
and  made  for  the  door.  Benedetto  rushed  forward  to 
prevent  her ;  while  my  comrades,  for  the  honor  of  the 
studio,  endeavored  to  bar  his  way. 

Then  began  an  argument  between  the  wife  and  the 
husband  ;  but,  as  I  saw  that  Benedetto  sustained  his 


302  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

part  of  it  with  great  brutality,  I  was  angry,  and,  hav- 
ing a  pretty  vigorous  arm,  I  pushed  him  aside,  and 
took  the  wife,  who  was  trembling  all  over,  to  the  door. 
She  said,  in  Italian,  a  few  words  of  thanks,  and  dis- 
appeared instantly. 

Returning  to  Benedetto,  who  was  gesticulating  furi- 
ously, I  told  him  to  leave  the  studio,  that  his  con- 
duct was  infamous,  and  if  I  heard  of  his  ill-treating 
his  wife  I  would  have  him  punished. 

"  Debole!"  (idiot!)  he  replied,  shrugging  his  shoul- 
ders, and  departing  amid  derisive  cheers. 

Several  days  passed,  and  no  signs  of  Benedetto. 
By  the  end  of  a  week  he  was  forgotten.  Three  days 
before  my  departure  from  Rome  his  wife  entered  my 
studio. 

"You  are  leaving  Rome,"  she  said,  "and  I  want 
you  to  take  me  with  you." 

"  Take  you  with  me  !  —  but  your  husband?  " 

"  Dead,"  she  answered  tranquilly. 

A  thought  crossed  my  mind. 

"  Did  you  kill  him?  "  1  said. 

She  made  an  affirmative  sign,  adding,  "  But  I  meant 
to  die  too." 

"  How  was  it?  "  I  asked. 

"  After  he  offered  me  that  affront,"  she  replied,  "  he 
came  home  and  beat  me,  as  he  often  did ;  then  he  went 
out  and  was  gone  all  day.  At  night  he  returned  with 
a  pistol  and  threatened  to  shoot  me;  but  I  got  the 
pistol  away  from  him,  for  he  was  drunk.  I  threw  him 
—  the  briccone !  —  on  his  bed,  and  he  fell  asleep.  Then 
I  stuffed  up  the  doors  and  windows,  and  lighted  the 
charcoal  brazier.    My  head  ached  horribly,  and  I  knew 


The  Deputy  of  Areis.  303 

nothing  more  till  the  next  day,  when  I  woke  up  in  the 
hands  of  my  neighbors.  They  had  smelt  the  charcoal, 
and  burst  in  the  door,  —  but  he  was  dead." 

''And  the  law?" 

*'  I  told  the  judge  everything.  Besides,  he  had  tried 
to  sell  me  to  an  Englishman,  —  that 's  why  he  wanted 
to  disgrace  me  here  with  you ;  he  thought  I  would  re- 
sist less.  The  judge  told  me  I  might  go,  I  had  done 
right;  then  I  confessed  to  a  priest,  and  he  gave  me 
absolution." 

"  But,  cm-a  mia,  what  can  you  do  in  France?  Bet- 
ter stay  in  Italy ;  besides,  I  am  not  rich." 

She  smiled  disdainfully. 

''I  shall  not  cost  you  much,"  she  said;  ''on  the 
contrary,  I  can  save  you  money." 

"How  so?" 

"  I  can  be  the  model  for  your  statues  if  I  choose. 
Besides  which,  I  am  a  capital  housekeeper.  If  Bene- 
detto had  behaved  properly,  we  should  have  had  a  good 
home, — per  die  ^  I  know  how  to  make  one  ;  and  I've 
another  great  talent  too  !  " 

She  ran  to  a  guitar,  which  was  hanging  on  the  wall, 
and  began  to  sing  a  bravura  air,  accompanying  herself 
with  singular  energy. 

"In  France,"  she  said,  when  she  had  finished,  "I 
could  take  lessons  and  go  upon  the  stage,  where  I  know 
I  should  succeed ;  that  was  Benedetto's  idea." 

"  But  why  not  do  that  in  Italy?  " 

"  I  am  hiding  from  that  Englishman,"  she  replied; 
"  he  wants  to  carry  me  off.  I  am  determined  to  go  to 
France ;  I  have  learned  to  speak  French.  If  I  stay 
here,  I  shall  throw  myself  into  tlie  Tiber." 


304  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

By  abandoning  such  a  nature,  more  terrible  than 
seductive,  to  itself,  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  will,  I 
think,  agree  that  I  was  likely  to  cause  some  misfor- 
tune. I  consented,  therefore,  that  Signora  Luigia 
should  accompany  me  to  Paris.  Since  then  she  has 
managed  my  household  with  discretion  and  economy. 
She  even  offered  to  pose  for  my  Pandora ;  but  the 
memory  of  that  scene  with  her  husband  has,  as  you 
may  well  believe,  kept  me  from  accepting  her  offer.  I 
have  given  her  a  singing-master,  and  she  is  now  al- 
most prepared  to  make  her  appearance  on  the  stage. 
But  in  spite  of  her  theatrical  projects,  she,  pious  like 
all  Italians,  has  joined  the  sisterhood  of  the  Virgin  in 
Saint-Sulpice,  my  parish  church,  and  during  the  month 
of  May,  which  began  a  few  days  ago,  the  letter  of  chairs 
counts  on  her  beautiful  voice  for  part  of  her  receipts. 
She  is  assiduous  at  the  services,  confesses,  and  takes 
the  sacrament  regularly.  Her  confessor,  a  most  re- 
spectable old  man,  came  to  see  me  lately  to  request 
that  she  might  not  be  required  to  pose  for  any  more  of 
my  statues,  saying  that  she  would  not  listen  to  him  on 
that  point,  believing  herself  bound  in  honor  to  me. 

My  own  intention,  if  I  am  elected,  which  now  seems 
probable,  is  to  separate  from  this  woman.  In  a  posi- 
tion which  will  place  me  more  before  the  public,  she 
would  become  an  object  of  remark  as  injurious  to  her 
reputation  and  future  prospects  as  to  mine.  I  have 
talked  with  Marie-Gaston  about  the  difficulty  I  foresee 
in  making  this  separation.  Until  now,  my  house  has 
been  the  whole  of  Paris  to  this  poor  woman ;  and  the 
thought  of  flinging  her  alone  into  the  gulf,  of  which 
she  knows  nothing,  horrifies  me. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  805 

Marie-Gaston  thinks  that  the  help  and  advice  of  a 
person  of  her  own  sex,  with  a  high  reputation  for  vir- 
tue and  good  judgment,  would  be  in  such  a  case  most 
efficacious ;  and  he  declares  that  he  and  I  both  know  a 
lady  who,  at  our  earnest  entreaty,  might  take  this  duty 
upon  herself.  The  person  to  whom  Marie-Gaston 
makes  allusion  is  but  a  recent  acquaintance  of  mine, 
and  I  could  hardly  ask  even  an  old  friend  to  take  such 
a  care  upon  her  shoulders.  I  know,  however,  that  you 
once  did  me  the  honor  to  say  that  "certain  relations 
ripen  rapidly."  Marie-Gaston  insists  that  this  lady, 
being  kind  and  pious  and  most  charitable,  will  be  at- 
tracted by  the  idea  of  helping  and  advising  a  poor 
lonely  woman.  On  our  return  to  Paris,  madame,  we 
shall  venture  to  consult  you,  and  you  will  tell  us 
whether  we  may  ask  for  this  precious  assistance. 

In  any  case,  I  will  ask  you  to  be  my  intermediary 
with  Monsieur  de  I'P^storade ;  tell  him  the  facts  I  have 
now  told  you,  and  say  that  I  hope  the  little  cloud  be- 
tween us  may  be  effectually  removed.  If  I  am  elected, 
we  shall  be,  I  know,  in  opposite  camps ;  but  as  my  in- 
tention is  not  to  take  a  tone  of  systematic  opposition 
in  all  the  questions  which  may  arise  between  our  par- 
ties, I  do  not  think  there  need  be  any  break  between 
us. 

By  this  time  to-morrow,  madame,  I  may  have  re- 
ceived a  checkmate  which  will  send  me  back  forever  to 
my  studio,  or  I  shall  have  my  foot  in  a  new  career. 
Shall  I  tell  you  that  the  thought  of  the  latter  result 
distresses  me  ?  — doubtless  from  a  fear  of  the  Un- 
known. 

I  was  almost  forgetting  to  give  you  another  piece 

20 


306  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

of  news.  I  have  consulted  Mother  Marie-des-Anges 
(whose  history  Marie-Gaston  tells  me  he  has  related  to 
you)  on  the  subject  of  my  doubts  and  fears  as  to  the 
violence  done  to  Mademoiselle  de  Lanty,  and  she  has 
promised  that  in  course  of  time  she  will  discover 
the  convent  in  which  Marianina  is  a  prisoner.  The 
worthy  Mother,  if  she  takes  this  into  her  head,  is 
almost  certain  to  succeed  in  finding  the  original  of  her 
Saint-Ursula. 

I  am  not  feeling  at  all  easy  in  mind  about  Marie- 
Gaston.  He  seems  to  me  in  a  state  of  feverish  agita- 
tion, partly  created  by  the  immense  interest  he  takes  in 
my  success.  But  I  greatly  fear  that  his  efforts  will 
result  in  a  serious  reaction.  His  own  grief,  which  at 
this  moment  he  is  repressing,  has  not  in  reality  lost  its 
sting.  Have  you  not  been  struck  by  the  rather  flighty 
and  mocking  tone  of  his  letters,  some  of  which  he  has 
shown  to  me?  That  is  not  in  his  nature,  for  in  his 
happiest  days  he  was  never  turbulently  gay ;  and  I  am 
sadly  afraid  that  when  this  fictitious  excitement  about 
my  election  is  over  he  may  fall  into  utter  prostration. 
He  has,  however,  consented  to  come  and  live  with  me, 
and  not  to  go  to  Ville  d'Avray  unless  I  am  with  him. 
Even  this  act  of  prudence,  which  I  asked  without 
hoping  to  obtain  it,  makes  me  uneasy.  Evidently  he 
is  afraid  of  the  memories  that  await  him  there.  Have 
I  the  power  to  lessen  the  shock?  Old  Philippe,  who 
was  left  in  charge  of  the  place  when  he  went  to  Italy, 
had  orders  not  to  move  or  change  anything  whatever 
in  the  house.  Our  friend  is  therefore  likely  to  find 
himself,  in  presence  of  those  speaking  objects,  on  the 
morrow    as    it  were  of    his   wife's   death.      Another 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  307 

alarming  thing !  he  has  only  spoken  of  her  once,  and 
will  not  suffer  me  to  approach  tlie  subject.  I  hope, 
however,  that  this  may  be  a  crisis;  once  passed,  I 
trust  we  may,  by  all  uniting,  succeed  in  composing  his 
mind. 

Victor  or  vanquished,  I  trust  to  meet  you  soon,  ma- 
danie,  and  always  as  your  most  respectful  and  devoted 

servant, 

Charles  de  Sallenauve. 

XIX.     MARIE-GASTON  TO  THE    COMTESSE    DE    l'eSTORADE. 

Arcis-sdr-Acbe,  May  15,  1839. 

That  stupid  riot  in  Paris,  the  incredible  particulars 
of  which  we  heard  this  morning  by  telegraph,  came 
near  causing  us  to  lose  the  election. 

'The  sub-prefect  instantly  placarded  all  over  the 
town  the  news  of  this  attempt  at  insurrection  —  no 
doubt  instigated  by  the  government  to  affect  the 
elections.  *'  What !  elect  a  democrat !  "  was  repeated 
everywhere  in  Arcis,  and  doubtless  elsewhere,  ''  so 
that  his  speeches  in  the  Chamber  may  be  made  the 
ammunition  of  insurgents !  " 

That  argument  threw  our  phalanx  into  disorder  and 
hesitation.  But  the  idea  occurred  to  Jacques  Briche- 
teau  to  turn  the  danger  itself  to  good  account,  and  he 
hastily  printed  on  a  sheet  of  paper  and  distributed  all 
over  the  town  in  enormous  quantities  the  following 
notice :  — 

'*  A  bloody  riot  took  place  yesterday  in  Paris.  Questioned 
as  to  the  employment  of  such  guilty  and  desperate  means  of 
opposition,  one  of  our  candidates,  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve, 
answered  thus :  *  Riots  will  always  be  foitnd  to  serve  the 


308  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

interests  of  the  government ;  for  this  reason  the  police  are 
invariably  accused  of  inciting  them.  True  resistance,  that 
which  I  stand  for,  will  always  be  legal  resistance,  pursued  by 
legal  means,  by  the  press,  by  the  tribune,  and  with  Patience 
—  that  great  force  granted  to  the  oppressed  and  to  the 
vanquished.'  " 

These  words,  you  will  remember,  madame,  were 
those  in  which  Sallenauve  answered  his  questioners 
at  the  preparatory  meeting.  Then  followed  in  large 
letters :  — 

"  The  Riot  has  been  suppressed.  Who  will  profit 

BY  IT? 

That  sheet  of  paper  did  marvels  ;  it  completely  foiled 
the  efforts  of  Monsieur  de  Trailles,  who,  throwing  off 
the  mask,  had  spent  his  day  in  perorating,  in  white 
gloves,  on  the  market-place  and  from  the  steps  of  the 
electoral  college. 

This  evening  the  result  is  known  ;  namely,  two  hun- 
dred and  one  votes  cast :  two  forBeauvisage;  twenty- 
nine  for  Simon  Giguet ;  one  hundred  and  seventy  for 
Sallenauve. 

Consequently,  Monsieur  Charles  de  Sallenauve  is 
proclaimed  Deputy. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  309 


PART   THIRD. 
MONSIEUR   DE    SALLENAUVE. 


THE   SORROWS   OF   MONSIEUR  DE   TRAILLES. 

During  the  evening  which  followed  the  election  in 
which  he  had  played  a  part  so  humiliating  to  his  vanity, 
Maxime  de  Trailles  returned  to  Paris.  It  might  be 
supposed  that  in  making,  on  his  arrival,  a  rapid  toilet 
and  ordering  his  carriage  to  be  instantly  brought  round, 
he  was  hastening  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  Comte  de  Ras- 
tignac,  minister  of  Public  Works,  to  whom  he  must 
have  desired  to  render  an  account  of  his  mission,  and 
explain  as  best  he  could  the  reasons  of  its  ill-success. 

But  another  and  more  pressing  interest  seemed  to 
claim  him. 

''  To  Colonel  Franchessini's,"  he  said  to  his  coach- 
man. 

Arriving  at  the  gate  of  one  of  the  prettiest  hotels  in 
the  quartier  Brdda,  and  nodding  to  the  concierge,  he 
received  an  affirmative  sign,  which  meant,  **  Monsieur 
is  at  home ;  "  and  at  the  same  time  a  valet  appeared  on 
the  portico  to  receive  him. 

*'  Is  the  colonel  visible?"  he  asked. 


310  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

'*  He  has  just  gone  into  madame's  room.  Does  mon- 
sieur wish  me  to  call  him? '' 

''  No,  I'll  wait  for  him  in  the  study." 

Then,  like  one  familiar  with  the  house,  and  without 
waiting  for  the  servant  to  usher  him,  he  entered  a  large 
room  on  the  ground-floor,  which  looked  into  a  garden, 
and  was  filled  with  a  miscellaneous  collection  of  articles 
testifying  to  the  colonel's  habits  and  tastes.  Books, 
charts,  and  maps  certainly  justified  the  word  "  study  ;  " 
but,  as  a  frantic  sportsman  and  member  of  the  Jockey 
Club,  the  colonel  had  allowed  this  sanctum  of  mental 
labor  and  knowledge  to  become,  by  degrees,  his  smok- 
ing, fencing,  and  harness  room.  Pipes  and  weapons 
of  all  shapes  and  all  lands,  saddles,  hunting-whips, 
spurs,  bits  of  many  patterns,  foils  and  boxing-gloves 
formed  a  queer  and  heterogeneous  collection.  How- 
ever, by  thus  surrounding  his  daily  life  with  the  objects 
of  his  favorite  studies^  the  colonel  proved  himself  a 
man  who  possessed  the  courage  of  his  opinions.  In 
fact,  he  openly  said  that,  beyond  a  passing  notice, 
there  was  no  reading  worth  a  man's  attention  except 
the  ''Stud  Journal." 

It  is  to  be  supposed,  however,  that  politics  had  man- 
aged in  some  way  to  slip  into  this  existence  devoted  to 
muscular  exercise  and  the  hippie  science,  for,  from  a 
heap  of  the  morning  journals  disdainfully  flung  upon 
the  floor  by  the  worthy  colonel,  Monsieur  de  Trailles 
picked  up  a  copy  of  the  legitimist  organ,  in  which  he 
read,  under  the  heading  of  Elections,  the  following 
article :  — 

"  The  staff  of  the  National  Guard  and  the  Jockey  Club, 
which  had  various  representatives  in  the  last  Chamber,  have 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  311 

just  sent  one  of  their  shining  notabilities  to  the  one  about  to 
open.  Colonel  Franchessini,  so  well  known  for  his  ardor  in 
punishing  the  refractories  of  the  National  Guard,  has  been 
elected  almost  unanimously  in  one  of  the  rotten  boroughs  of 
the  civil  list.  It  is  supposed  that  he  will  take  his  seat  beside 
the  phalanx  of  other  henchmen,  and  show  himself  in  the 
Chamber,  as  he  has  elsewhere,  one  of  the  firmest  supporters 
of  the  policy  of  the  present  order  of  things.'^ 

As  Maxime  finished  reading  this  article,  the  colonel 
entered. 

After  serving  the  Empire  for  a  very  short  time, 
Colonel  Franchessini  had  become  one  of  the  most  bril- 
liant colonels  of  the  Restoration ;  but  in  consequence 
of  certain  mists  which  had  risen  about  the  perfect  hon- 
orableness  of  his  character  he  had  found  himself  obliged 
to  send  in  his  resignation,  so  that  in  1830  he  was  fully 
prepared  to  devote  himself  in  the  most  ardent  manner 
to  the  dynasty  of  July.  He  did  not  re-enter  military 
service,  because,  shortly  after  his  misadventure  he  had 
met  with  an  Englishwoman,  enormously  rich,  who  be- 
ing taken  with  his  beautj',  worthy  at  that  time  of  the 
Antinous,  had  made  him  her  husband,  and  the  colonel 
henceforth  contented  himself  with  the  epaulets  of  the 
staff  of  the  National  Guard.  He  became,  in  that  po- 
sition, one  of  the  most  exacting  and  turbulent  of  blus- 
terers, and  through  the  influence  of  that  quality 
combined  with  the  fortune  his  wife  had  given  him,  he 
had  just  been  elected,  as  the  paper  stated,  to  the 
Chamber  of  deputies.  Approaching  the  fifties,  like 
his  friend  de  Trailles,  Colonel  Franchessini  had  still 
some  pretensions  to  the  after-glow  of  youth,  which  his 
slim  figure  and  agile  military  bearing  seemed  likely  to 


312  The  Deputy  of  Areis. 

preserve  to  him  for  some  time  longer.  Although  he 
had  conquered  the  difficulty  of  his  gray  hair,  reducing 
its  silvery  reflections  by  keeping  it  cut  very  close,  he 
was  less  resigned  to  the  scantiness  of  his  moustache, 
which  he  wore  in  youthful  style,  twirled  to  a  sharp 
point  by  means  of  a  Hungarian  cosmetic,  which  also 
preserved  to  a  certain  degree  its  primitive  color.  But 
whoso  wants  to  prove  too  much  proves  nothing,  and  in 
the  black  which  the  colonel  used  there  was  noticeably  a 
raw  tone,  and  an  equalit}'  of  shade  too  perfect  for  truth 
of  nature.  Hence  his  countenance,  swarthy  and 
strongly  marked  with  the  Italian  origin  indicated  by 
his  name,  had  an  expression  of  singular  rigidity,  to 
which  his  features,  now  become  angular,  his  piercing 
glance,  and  his  nose  like  the  beak  of  a  bird  of  prey, 
did  not  afford  the  requisite  corrective. 

''  Hey,  Maxime!"  he  cried,  shaking  hands  with  his 
visitor,  "where  the  devil  do  you  come  from?  It  is 
more  than  a  fortnight  since  I  have  seen  you  at  the 
club." 

'*^  Where  do  I  come  from?"  replied  Monsieur  de 
Trailles.  "  I  '11  tell  you  presently ;  but  first  let  me 
congratulate  you  on  your  election." 

"  Yes,"  said  the  colonel,  with  apparent  indifference, 
'' //^e^/ would  put  me  up ;  but  I  assure  you,  upon  my 
honor,  I  was  very  innocent  of  it  all,  and  if  no  one  had 
done  more  than  1  —  " 

'  '■  But,  my  dear  fellow,  you  are  a  blessed  choice  for 
that  arrondissement ;  I  only  wish  that  the  electors  I 
have  had  to  do  with  were  equally  intelligent." 

"  What !  have  you  been  standing  for  election  ?  I 
didn't  suppose,  taking  into  consideration  the  —  rather 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  313 

troubled  state  of  your  finances,  that  you  could  man- 
age it." 

*'  True,  and  I  was  not  electioneering  on  my  own  ac- 
count. Rastignac  was  very  uneasy  about  the  arron- 
dissement  of  Arcis-sur-Aube,  and  he  asked  me  to  go 
down  there  for  a  few  days." 

''  Arcis-sur-Aube?  Seems  to  me  I  read  an  article 
about  that  this  morning  in  one  of  those  cabbage-leaves. 
Horrid  choice,  isn't  it?  —  some  plasterer  or  image- 
maker  they  propose  to  send  us  ?  " 

'*  Precisely;  and  it  is  about  that  very  thing  I  have 
come  to  see  you  before  I  see  the  others.  I  have  just 
arrived,  and  I  don't  want  to  go  to  Rastignac  until 
after  I  have  talked  with  you." 

"How  is  he  getting  on,  that  little  minister?"  said 
the  colonel,  taking  no  notice  of  the  clever  steps  by 
which  Maxime  was  gravitating  toward  the  object  of 
his  visit.  ''They  seem  to  be  satisfied  with  him  at  the 
palace.  Do  you  know  that  little  Nuciugen  whom  he 
married  ?  " 

''  Yes,  I  often  see  Rastignac ;  he  is  a  very  old  ac- 
quaintance of  mine." 

''  She  is  pretty,  that  little  thing,"  continued  the 
colonel,  "very  pretty;  and  I  think,  the  first  year  of 
marriage  well  buried,  one  might  risk  one's  self  in  that 
direction  with  some  success." 

"  Come,  come,"  said  Maxime,  "you  are  a  serious 
man  now,  a  legislator!  As  for  me,  the  mere  med- 
dling in  electoral  matters  in  the  interests  of  other 
people  has  sobered  me." 

"  Did  you  say  you  went  to  Arcis-sur-Aube  to  hinder 
the  election  of  that  stone-cutter  ?  " 


314  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

*«  Not  at  all;  I  went  there  to  throw  myself  in  the 
way  of  the  election  of  a  Left-centre  candidate." 

''Pah!  the  Left,  pure  and  simple,  is  hardly  worse. 
But  take  a  cigar;  these  are  excellent.  The  princes 
smoke  them." 

The  colonel  rose  and  rang  the  bell,  saying  to  the 
servant  when  he  came,  "A  light!" 

The  cigars  lighted,  Monsieur  de  Trailles  endeavored 
to  prevent  another  interruption  by  declaring  before  he 
was  questioned  that  he  had  never  smoked  anything 
more  exquisite.  Comfortably  ensconced  in  his  arm- 
chair, the  colonel  seemed  to  offer  the  hope  of  a 
less  fugacious  attention,  and  Monsieur  de  Trailles 
resumed :  — 

''  All  went  well  at  first.  To  crush  the  candidate  the 
ministry  wanted  to  be  rid  of,  —  a  lawyer,  and  the  worst 
sort  of  cad,  —  I  unearthed  a  stocking-maker,  a  fearful 
fool,  whom  I  persuaded  to  offer  himself  as  candidate. 
The  worthy  man  was  convinced  that  he  belonged  to 
the  dynastic  opposition.  That  is  the  opinion  which, 
for  the  time  being,  prevails  in  that  region.  The  elec- 
tion, thanks  to  me,  was  as  good  as  made  ;  and,  our  man 
once  in  Paris,  the  great  Seducer  in  the  Tuileries  had 
only  to  say  five  words  to  him,  and  this  dynastic  op- 
poser  could  have  been  turned  inside  out  like  one  of  his 
own  stockings,  and  made  to  do  whatever  was  wanted 
of  him." 

"Pretty  well  played  that!"  said  the  colonel.  ''I 
recognize  my  Maxirae." 

"You  will  recognize  him  still  farther  when  he  tells 
you  that  he  was  able,  without  recourse  to  perquisites, 
to   make   his  own  little   profit  out  of  the  affair.     In 


The  Deputy  of  Areis.  315 

order  to  graft  a  little  parliamentary  ambition  upon  my 
vegetable,  I  addressed  myself  to  his  wife,  —  a  rather 
appetizing  provincial,  though  past  her  prime." 

*' Yes,  yes,  I  see;  very  good  !  "  said  Franchessini ; 
"  husband  made  deputy  —  satisfied  —  shut  his  mouth." 

"You  are  all  wrong,  my  dear  fellow;  the  pair  have 
an  only  daughter,  a  spoilt  child,  nineteen  years  old, 
very  agreeable  face,  and  something  like  a  million  in 
her  pocket." 

"  But,  my  dear  Maxime,  I  passed  your  tailor's  house 
last  night,  and  it  was  not  illuminated." 

"No;  that  would  have  been  premature.  However, 
here  was  the  situation :  two  women  frantic  to  get  to 
Paris ;  gratitude  to  the  skies  for  the  man  who  would  get 
them  an  introduction  to  the  Palais-Bourbon ;  the  little 
one  crazy  for  the  title  of  countess ;  the  mother  trans- 
ported at  the  idea,  carefully  insinuated  by  me,  of  holding 
a  political  salon,  —  you  must  see  all  that  such  a  situation 
offers,  and  you  know  me  too  well,  I  fancy,  to  suppose 
that  I  should  fall  below  any  of  its  opportunities." 

'*  Quite  easy  in  mind  as  to  that,"  said  the  colonel, 
getting  up  to  open  a  window  and  let  out  the  smoke  of 
their  two  cigars. 

''  I  was  on  the  point,"  continued  Maxime,  "  of  pock- 
eting both  daughter  and  dot^  when  there  fell  from  the 
skies,  or  rather  there  rose  from  tlie  nether  regions,  a 
Left  candidate,  the  stone-cutter,  as  you  call  him,  a 
man  with  two  names,  —  in  short,  a  natural  son  —  " 

''Ha!"  said  the  colonel,  "those  fellows  do  have 
lucky  stars,  to  be  sure.  I  am  not  surprised  if  one  of 
them  mowed  the  grass  from  under  your  feet." 

"My  dear  friend,"  said  Maxime,  "  if  we  were  in  the 


316  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

middle  ages,  I  should  explain  by  magic  and  sorcery 
the  utter  discomfiture  of  my  candidate,  and  the  elec- 
tion of  the  stone-man,  whom  you  are  fated  to  have  for 
your  colleague.  How  is  it  possible  to  believe,  what 
is  however  the  fact,  that  an  old  tricoteuse,  a  former 
friend  of  Danton,  and  now  the  abbess  of  a  convent  of 
Ursulines,  should  actually,  by  the  help  of  her  nephew, 
an  obscure  organist  in  Paris,  have  so  bewitched  the 
whole  electoral  college  that  this  upstart  has  been 
elected  by  a  large  majority?" 

"  But  I  suppose  he  had  some  friends  and  acquain- 
tances in  the  town?" 

"Not  the  ghost  of  one, — unless  it  might  be  that 
nun.  Fortune,  relations,  father,  even  a  name,  he 
never  had  until  the  day  of  his  arrival  at  Arcis  two 
weeks  ago ;  and  now,  if  you  please,  the  Comte  Charles 
de  Sallenauve,  seigneur  of  the  chateau  of  Arcis,  is 
elected  to  the  Chamber  of  deputies !  God  only  knows 
how  it  was  done !  The  pretended  head  of  a  former 
great  family,  representing  himself  as  absent  in  for- 
eign lands  for  many  years,  suddenly  appears  with  this 
schemer  before  a  notary  in  Arcis,  recognizes  him  at  a 
gallop  as  his  son,  buys  the  chateau  of  Arcis  and  pre- 
sents it  to  him,  and  is  off  during  the  night  before  any 
one  could  even  know  what  road  he  took.  The  trick  thus 
played,  the  abbess  and  her  aide-de-camp,  the  organ- 
ist, launched  the  candidate,  and  at  once  republicans, 
legitimists,  conservatives,  clergy,  nobility,  bourgeoisie, 
in  fact  everybody,  as  if  by  some  spell  cast  upon  that 
region,  all  did  the  bidding  of  that  old  witch  of  a 
nun,  and  without  the  stalwart  battalion  of  the  func- 
tionaries (who  under  my  eye  stood  firm  and  did  not 


The  Deputy  of  Areis.  317 

flinch),    bis    election    would    have    been,   like   yours, 
unanimous." 

*'  Then,  my  poor  friend,  good-bye  to  the  dot." 

"Not  precisely;  though  it  must  certainly  be  ad- 
journed. The  father  grumbles  because  the  blessed 
tranquillity  of  his  life  was  disturbed  and  he  himself 
covered  with  ridicule,  though  the  poor  dear  man  had 
already  enough  of  that !  The  daughter  still  wants  to 
be  a  countess,  but  the  mother  takes  it  hard  that  her 
political  salon  should  be  floating  away  from  her,  and 
God  knows  how  far  I  shall  be  led  in  order  to  comfort 
her.  Besides  all  this,  I  myself  am  goaded  by  the 
necessity  of  having  to  find  the  solution  of  my  own 
problem  pretty  soon.  I  had  found  it  there  :  I  intended 
to  marry,  and  take  a  year  to  settle  my  aff'airs ;  at  the 
next  session  I  should  have  made  my  father-in-law 
resign  and  stepped  into  his  seat  in  the  Chamber  ;  then, 
you  understand,  what  an  horizon  before  me  !  " 

'*  But,  my  dear  fellow,  political  horizon  apart,  don't 
let  that  million  slip  through  your  fingers." 

''  Oh,  heavens!  as  for  that,  except  for  the  delay,  I 
feel  safe  enough.  My  future  family  is  about  to  remove 
to  Paris.  After  this  mortifying  defeat,  life  in  Arcis 
will  not  be  endurable.  Beauvisage  (forgive  the  name, 
it  is  that  of  my  adopted  family)  —  Beauvisage  is  like 
Coriolanus,  ready  if  he  can  to  bring  fire  and  slaughter 
on  his  ungrateful  birthplace.  Besides,  in  transplant- 
ing themselves  hither,  these  unfortunate  exiles  know 
where  to  lay  their  heads,  being  the  owners  of  the 
h6tel  Beauseant." 

'*  Owners  of  the  hotel  Beauseant !  "  cried  the  colonel, 
in  amazement. 


318  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

"Yes;  Beauseant  —  Beauvisage;  only  a  termina- 
tion to  change.  Ah!  my  dear  fellow,  you  don't  know 
what  these  provincial  fortunes  are,  accumulated  penny 
by  penny,  especially  when  to  the  passion  for  saving 
is  added  the  incessant  aspiration  of  that  leech  called 
commerce.  We  must  make  up  our  minds  to  some 
course ;  the  bourgeoisie  are  rising  round  us  like  a 
flood  ;  it  is  almost  affable  in  them  to  buy  our  chdteaus 
and  estates  when  they  might  guillotine  us  as  in  1793, 
and  get  them  for  nothing." 

*' Happily  for  you,  my  dear  Maxime,  you  have 
reduced  the  number  of  your  chateaus  and  estates." 

''  You  see  yourself  that  is  not  so,"  replied  Maxime, 
"  inasmuch  as  I  am  now  engaged  in  providing  myself 
with  one.  The  Beauseant  house  is  to  be  repaired  and 
refurnished  immediately,  and  I  am  charged  with  the 
ordering  of  the  work.  But  I  have  made  my  future 
mother-in-law  another  promise,  and  I  want  your  help, 
my  dear  fellow,  in  fulfilling  it." 

"It  isn't  a  tobacco  license,  or  a  stamped-paper 
oflSce,  is  it?" 

' '  No,  something  less  difficult.  These  damned  women, 
when  hatred  or  a  desire  for  vengeance  takes  possession 
of  them,  are  marvels  of  instinct ;  and  Madame  Beau- 
visage,  who  roars  like  a  lioness  at  the  very  name  of 
Sallenauve,  has  taken  it  into  her  head  that  beneath  his 
incomprehensible  success  there  is  some  foul  intrigue 
or  mystery.  It  is  certain  that  the  appearance  and  dis- 
appearance of  this  mysterious  father  have  given  rise 
to  very  singular  conjectures ;  and  probably  if  the 
thumb-screws  were  put  upon  the  organist,  who  was, 
they  say,  intrusted  with  the  education  of  the  interest- 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  319 

ing  bastard,  we  might  get  the  secret  o|  his  birth  and 
possibly  other  unexpected  revelations.  Now  I  have 
thought  of  a  man  on  whom  you  have,  I  believe,  great 
influence,  who  might  in  this  hunt  for  facts  assist  us 
immensely.  Don't  you  remember  the  robbery  of  those 
jewels  from  Jenny  Cadine,  about  which  she  was  so 
unhappy  one  night  at  Very's?  You  asked  the  waiter 
for  pens  and  paper,  and  on  a  simple  note  which  you 
sent  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  a  Monsieur 
Saint-Esteve  the  police  went  to  work,  and  before  the 
evening  of  the  next  day  the  thieves  were  captured  and 
the  jewels  restored." 

''  Yes,"  said  the  colonel,  ''  I  remember  all  that;  my 
interference  was  lucky.  But  I  must  tell  you  that  had 
I  paused  to  reflect  1  should  not  have  treated  Mon- 
sieur de  Saint-P2steve  so  cavalierly.  He  i^  a  man  to 
be  approached  with  greater  ceremony.'* 

''  AA  ga!  but  is  n't  he  a  former  galley-slave,  whose 
pardon  you  helped  to  obtain,  and  who  feels  for  you 
the  veneration  they  say  Fieschi  felt  for  one  of  his 
protectors  ?  " 

*'  Yes,  that  is  true.  Monsieur  de  Saint-Est^ve,  like 
his  predecessor,  Bibi- Lupin,  has  had  misfortunes;  but 
he  is  to-day  the  head  of  the  detective  police,  the  impor- 
tant functions  of  which  office  he  fulfils  with  rare  ca- 
pacity. If  the  matter  concerned  anything  that  comes 
within  his  department,  I  should  not  hesitate  to  give  you 
a  letter  to  him  ;  but  the  affair  you  speak  of  is  delicate ; 
and  in  any  case  I  must  first  sound  him  and  see  if  he  is 
willing  to  talk  with  you." 

^'I  thought  you  managed  him  despotically.  Let  us 
say  no  more  about  it,  if  you  think  it  so  very  difficult." 


320  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

'^The  greatest  difficulty  is  that  I  never  see  him  ;  and 
I  naturally  cannot  write  to  him  for  such  an  object.  I 
should  have  to  watch  for  an  occasion,  a  chance  meet- 
ing. But  why  don't  you  speak  of  this  to  Rastignac? 
He  could  give  him  an  order  to  act  at  once."  4 

"Don't  you  understand  that  Rastignac  will  receive 
me  very  ill  indeed?  I  had  assured  him,  by  letter,  of 
success,  and  now  I  am  forced  to  report  in  person  our 
defeat.  Besides,  on  every  account,  I  would  rather  owe 
this  service  to  your  friendship." 

"Well,  it  sha'n't  fail  you,"  said  the  colonel,  rising. 
"  I  '11  do  my  best  to  satisfy  you  ;  only,  there  must  be 
a  delay." 

The  visit  had  lasted  long,  and  Maxime  felt  that  a 
hint  was  given  him  to  abridge  it.  He  therefore  took 
leave,  putting  into  his  manner  a  certain  coldness  which 
the  colonel  appeared  not  to  notice. 

No  sooner  had  Monsieur  de  Trailles  departed  than 
Franchessini  opened  a  pack  of  cards  and  took  out  the 
knave  of  spades.  This  lie  cut  up  in  a  curious  manner, 
leaving  the  figure  untouched.  Placing  this  species  of 
hieroglyphic  between  two  sheets  of  paper,  he  consigned 
it  to  an  envelope.  On  this  envelope  and  disguising  his 
hand  the  colonel  wrote  as  follows  :  — 

".Monsieur  de  Saint-Esteve,  rue  Sainte-Anne,  near 
the  Quai  des  Orfevres." 

That  done,  he  rang  the  bell  and  gave  orders  to  put 
up  his  carriage,  which  he  had  ordered  before  Maxime's 
arrival ;  after  which  he  went  out  alone  on  foot,  and 
threw  his  singular  missive  into  the  first  street  letter- 
box that  he  passed.  He  had  taken  care,  before  he  left 
the  house,  to  see  if  it  were  properly  sealed. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  321 


n. 


A    CONVERSATION    BETWEEN    ELEVEN     O'CLOCK    AND 
MIDNIGHT. 

As  a  result  of  the  elections  which  had  just  taken 
place,  the  ministry,  contrary  to  expectation,  main- 
tained a  majority  in  the  Chamber,  —  a  doubtful  and 
provisional  majority  which  would  give  it  an  uncertain 
and  struggling  existence.  But,  at  any  rate,  it  had  ob- 
tained that  merely  numerical  success  which  parties 
seek  at  any  price  to  prolong  their  power.  The  Te 
Deum  was  sung  in  all  its  camps,  —  a  paean  which  serves 
as  well  to  celebrate  victorious  defeats  as  honest 
victories. 

On  the  evening  of  the  day  when  Colonel  Franchessini 
received  the  visit  from  Maxime  de  Trailles,  the  gen- 
eral result  of  the  elections  was  made  known.  The 
ministers  of  the  left  bank,  whose  wives  received  on 
that  day,  found  their  salons  crowded,  particularly  the 
Comte  de  Rastignac,  the  minister  of  Public  Works. 

Madame  de  I'Estorade,  too  much  absorbed  in  her 
children  to  be  very  exact  in  the  fulfilment  of  her  social 
duties,  had  owed  a  visit  to  Madame  de  Rastignac  ever 
since  the  evening  when  the  minister's  wife  had  inter- 
rupted her  conversation  with  the  sculptor  apropos  of 
the  famous  statue.  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  zealous 
conservative  as   we   know   already,  bad  insisted  that 

21 


322  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

politics  and  politeness  now  combined  to  oblige  them 
both  to  pay  this  social  debt.  Arriving  early,  in  order 
to  be  rid  the  sooner  of  such  a  bore,  Madame  de  I'Es- 
torade  found  herself  seated  at  the  upper  end  of  a  circle 
of  women,  while  the  men  stood  about  them  conversing. 
Her  chair  was  side  by  side  with  that  of  Madame  de 
Rastignac. 

In  hoping  to  make  her  visit  short,  Madame  de  I'Es- 
torade  had  not  counted  on  the  allurements  of  conversa- 
tion which,  under  the  circumstances  of  this  so-called 
political  victory,  laid  hold  of  her  husband.  A  man  of 
more  influence  by  his  judgment  than  by  his  oratory  in 
the  Chamber  of  Peers,  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  as  he 
circulated  through  the  salons,  was  stopped  at  every 
turn  by  the  various  notabilities  of  politics,  finance,  and 
diplomacy,  and  requested  to  give  his  opinion  on  the 
future  of  the  session  now  about  to  begin.  To  all  such 
questions  he  replied  with  more  or  less  extended  obser- 
vations, and  sometimes  he  had  the  pleasure  of  finding 
himself  the  centre  of  a  group  respectfully  receptive  of 
his  opinions.  This  success  rendered  him  very  inatten- 
tive to  the  telegraphy  of  his  wife,  who,  watching  his 
various  evolutions,  made  him  signs  whenever  she  could 
catch  his  eye  that  she  wished  to  go  away. 

The  years  that  had  elapsed  since  Monsieur  de  I'Es- 
torade had  obtained  the  hand  of  the  beautiful  Renee 
de  Maucombe,  while  they  had  scarcely  dimmed  the 
splendor  of  her  beauty,  had  considerably  aged  her  hus- 
band. The  twenty  years'  difference  in  their  ages  —  he 
being  now  fifty-two,  she  thirty-two  —  was  growing  all 
the  more  apparent  because  even  at  the  time  of  the  mar- 
riage he  was  turning  gray  and  his  health  was  failing. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  323 

An  affection  of  the  liver,  latent  for  several  years,  was 
now  developing,  and  at  the  same  time  the  wilful  dis- 
position which  is  noticeable  in  statesmen  and  men  of 
ambition  made  his  mouth  less  sensitive  to  the  conjugal 
bit.  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  talked  so  long  and  so 
well  that  after  a  time  the  salons  thinned,  leaving  a 
group  of  the  intimates  of  the  house  around  his  wife  and 
their  hostess.  At  this  moment  the  minister  himself 
slipped  an  arm  through  his,  and,  leading  him  up  to  the 
group  surrounding  their  two  wives,  Rastignac  said  to 
Madame  de  I'Estorade,  — 

"  I  bring  you  back  your  husband  ;  I  have  just  found 
him  in  criminal  conversation  with  a  member  of  the 
ZoUverein,  who  would  probably  have  clung  to  him  all 
night  if  it  had  not  been  for  me." 

"•  I  was  myself  on  the  point  of  asking  Madame  de 
Rastignac  for  a  bed,  that  I  might  release  her  from  the 
burden  of  my  company,  which  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade's 
interminable  conversations  have  put  upon  her." 

Madame  de  Rastignac  protested  that,  on  the  con- 
trary, she  desired  to  enjoy  as  long  as  possil)le  Madame 
de  I'Estorade's  company,  only  regretting  that  she  had 
been  so  often  obliged  to  interrupt  their  conversation 
to  receive  those  strange  objects,  the  newly  fledged 
deputies,  who  had  come  in  relays  to  make  their  bow 
to  her. 

"Oh!  my  dear,"  cried  Rastignac,  *Miere's  the  ses- 
sion about  to  open,  and  we  really  must  not  take  these 
disdainful  airs  toward  the  elect  of  the  nation.  Besides 
which,  you  will  get  into  difficulties  with  madame,  who, 
I  am  told,  is  the  protectress  of  one  of  these  sovereigns 
of  late  date." 


324  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

"I?"  said  Madame  de  I'Estorade,  rather  surprised, 
and  blushing  a  little.  She  had  one  of  those  complex- 
ions, still  fresh  and  dazzling,  which  are  predisposed  to 
these  flushes  of  color. 

"Ah!  true,"  said  Madame  de  Rastignac;  "I  had 
forgotten  that  artist  who  cut  out  the  pretty  figures  for 
your  children  the  last  time  I  had  the  pleasure  of  paying 
you  a  visit.  I  own  I  was  far  from  thinking  then  that 
he  would  be  one  of  our  masters." 

''  And  yet,  ever  since  then,"  replied  Madame  de 
I'Estorade,  "  his  election  has  been  talked  about ;  though 
it  must  be  owned  that  until  now  no  one  thought  seri- 
ously of  it." 

'*  I  did,"  said  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  rather  eagerly, 
seizing  the  occasion  to  put  another  star  to  his  reputa- 
tion for  prophecy ;  ' '  from  the  first  political  conver- 
sation that  I  had  with  him  I  said  —  and  Monsieur 
de  RonqueroUes  is  here  to  bear  me  out  —  that  I  was 
surprised  at  the  ability  and  the  breadth  of  aim  he 
manifested." 

"  Certainly,"  said  the  personage  thus  interpellated, 
'  ^  he  is  not  an  ordinary  fellow  ;  but  I  do  not  believe  in 
his  future.  He  is  a  man  who  goes  by  the  first  im- 
pulsion, and,  as  Monsieur  de  Talleyrand  has  wisely 
remarked,  the  first  impulse  is  the  good  impulse." 

"Well,  monsieur?"  inquired  Madame  de  I'Estorade, 
ingenuously. 

"  Well,  madame,"  replied  Monsieur  de  RonqueroUes, 
who  was  vain  of  his  scepticism,  "  heroism  is  not  of  our 
day;  it  is  heavy  baggage,  horribly  embarrassing,  which 
gets  us  into  mud-holes  continually." 

"Nevertheless,  I  believe  that  great  qualities  of  heart 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  325 

and  mind  have  some  share  in  the  composition  of  a 
distinguished  man." 

"  Qualities  of  mind?  Yes,  you  are  right  there,  pro- 
vided always  they  work  in  a  certain  direction.  But  as 
for  qualities  of  the  heart  in  political  life,  what  good 
are  they  ?  —  to  hoist  you  on  stilts  with  which  you  can't 
walk  as  well  as  you  can  on  the  ground,  and  from  which 
you  are  liable  to  fall  and  break  your  neck  at  the  first 
push." 

*'  At  that  rate,"  said  Madame  de  Rastignac,  laugh- 
ing, while  Madame  de  I'Estorade  was  silent,  disdaining 
to  reply,  ''  the  political  world  must  be  peopled  by  none 
but  scoundrels." 

"  That  is  so,  madame,  —  ask  Lazarille ;  "  and  as  he 
made  this  allusion  to  a  famous  stage  joke,  he  laid  his 
hand  on  the  minister's  shoulder. 

''  My  dear  fellow,"  said  Rastignac,  '*  I  think  your 
generalities  are  a  little  too  particular." 

"No,  no;  but  come,"  returned  Monsieur  de  Ronque- 
rolles,  "  let  us  talk  seriously.  To  my  knowledge,  this 
Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  — -  that  is  the  name  I  think  he 
has  taken  in  exchange  for  Dorlange,  which  he  himself 
called  theatrical  —  has  done,  within  a  short  time,  two 
fine  actions.  I,  being  present  and  assisting,  saw  him 
stand  up  to  be  killed  by  the  Due  de  Rhetore,  on  account 
of  certain  ill-sounding  words  said  about  a  friend. 
Those  words,  in  the  first  place,  he  could  not  help  hear- 
ing ;  and  having  heard  them  it  was,  I  will  not  say  his 
duty,  but  his  right  to  resent  them." 

*'Ah!"  said  Madame  de  Rastignac,  *'then  it  was 
he  who  fought  that  duel  people  said  so  much 
about?" 


326  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

"Yes,  madame,  and  I  ought  to  say  —  for  I  under* 
stand  such  matters  —  that  at  the  meeting  he  behaved 
with  consummate  bravery." 

To  avoid  the  recital  of  the  second  fine  action,  Madame 
de  I'Estorade,  at  the  risk  of  impolitely  cutting  short  a 
topic  thus  begun,  rose,  and  made  an  almost  impercep- 
tible sign  to  her  husband  that  she  wished  to  go.  But 
Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  took  advantage  of  its  faintness 
to  stay  where  he  was. 

Monsieur  de  RonqueroUes  continued  :  — 

"  His  other  fine  action  was  to  throw  himself  in  front 
of  some  runaway  horses  to  save  madam e's  daughter 
from  imminent  death." 

All  eyes  turned  on  Madame  de  I'Estorade,  who,  this 
time,  blushed  deeply  ;  but  recovering  speech,  if  only  in 
order  to  seem  composed,  she  said  with  feeling,  — 

''  According  to  your  theory  of  heroism  you  must 
think  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  very  foolish  to  have  thus 
risked  his  life  and  his  future ;  but  I  assure  you  that 
there  is  one  woman  who  will  never  agree  with  you,  and 
that  is  —  the  mother  of  my  child." 

As  she  said  the  words,  tears  were  in  Madame  de 
I'Estorade's  voice  ;  she  pressed  Madame  de  Rastignac's 
hand  affectionately,  and  made  so  decided  a  movement 
to  leave  the  room  that  she  finally  put  in  motion  her 
immovably  husband. 

*'  Thank  you,"  said  Madame  de  Rastignac,  as  she 
accompanied  her  to  the  door,  "  for  having  broken  a 
lance  with  that  cynic ;  Monsieur  de  Rastignac's  past 
life  has  left  him  with  odious  acquaintances." 

As  she  resumed  her  place,  Monsieur  de  RonqueroUes 
was  saying,  — 


I 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  327 

**Ha!  saved  her  child's  life  indeed!  The  fact  is 
that  poor  I'Estorade  is  turning  as  yellow  as  a  lemon." 

*'  Ah,  monsieur,  but  that  is  shocking,"  cried  Madame 
de  Rastignac.  ''  A  woman  whom  no  breath  of  slander 
has  ever  touched ;  who  lives  only  for  her  husband  and 
children;  whose  eyes  were  full  of  tears  at  the  mere 
thought  of  the  danger  the  child  had  run  !  —  " 

"  Heavens !  madame,"  retorted  Monsieur  de  Ron- 
querolles,  paying  no  heed  to  the  rebuke,  ''all  I  can  say 
is  that  newfoundlands  are  always  dangerous.  If  Ma- 
dame de  I'Estorade  becomes  too  much  compromised, 
she  has  one  resource,  —  she  can  marry  him  to  the  girl 
he  saved." 

Monsieur  de  Ronquerolles  had  no  sooner  said  the 
words  than  he  perceived  the  horrible  blunder  he  had  com- 
mitted in  making  such  a  speech  before  Mademoiselle  de 
Nucingen.  He  colored  high,  — a  most  unusual  sign  in 
him,  —  and  the  solemn  silence  which  seemed  to  wrap 
all  present  completed  his  discomfiture. 

*'  This  clock  must  be  slow,"  said  the  minister,  catch- 
ing at  any  words  that  would  make  a  sound  and  break 
up  an  evening  that  was  ending  unfortunately. 

"  True,"  said  de  Ronquerolles,  looking  at  his  watch; 
"  it  is  a  quarter  to  twelve." 

He  bowed  to  Madame  de  Rastignac  ceremoniously, 
and  went  away,  followed  by  the  rest  of  the  company. 

"  You  saw  his  embarrassment,"  said  Rastignac  to 
his  wife ;  "  he  had  no  malicious  intention  in  what  he 
said." 

"It  is  of  no  consequence.  I  was  saying  just  now 
to  Madame  de  I'Estorade  that  your  past  life  had  given 
you  a  number  of  detestable  acquaintances." 


328  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

"But,  my  dear,  the  King  himself  is  compelled  to 
smile  graciously  on  men  he  would  fain  put  in  the  Bas- 
tille, —  if  we  still  had  a  Bastille  and  the  Charter 
permitted  him." 

Madame  de  Kastignac  made  no  reply,  and  without 
bidding  her  husband  good-night,  she  went  up  to  her 
room.  A  few  moments  later  the  minister  went  to  the 
private  door  which  led  into  it,  and,  not  finding  the  key 
in  the  lock,  he  said,  "  Augusta!  "  in  the  tone  of  voice 
a  simple  bourgeois  might  have  used  in  such  a  case. 

For  all  answer,  he  heard  a  bolt  run  hastily  on  the 
other  side  of  the  door. 

"Ah!"  he  thought  to  himself  with  a  gesture  of 
vexation,  "  there  are  some  pasts  very  different  from 
that  door,  —  they  are  always  wide  open  to  the  present." 

Then,  after  a  moment's  silence,  he  added,  to  cover 
his  retreat,  "  Augusta,  I  wanted  to  ask  you  what  hour 
Madame  de  I'Estorade  receives.  I  ought  to  call  upon 
her  to-morrow,  after  what  happened  here  to-night." 

"At  four  o'clock,"  said  the  young  wife  through  the 
door,  —  "on  her  return  from  the  Tuileries,  where  she 
takes  the  children  to  walk  every  day." 

One  of  the  questions  that  were  frequently  put  by 
Parisian  society  after  the  marriage  of  Madame  de 
Rastignac  was  :  "  Does  she  love  her  husband?  " 

The  doubt  was  permissible.  The  marriage  of  Made- 
moiselle de  Nucingen  was  the  unpleasant  and  scarcely 
moral  product  of  one  of  those  immoral  unions  which 
find  their  issue  in  the  life  of  a  daughter,  after  years  and 
satiety  have  brought  them  to  a  condition  of  dry-rot 
and  paralysis.  In  such  marriages  of  convenience  the 
husband  is  satisfied,  for  he  escapes  a  happiness  which 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  329 

has  turned  rancid  to  him,  and  he  profits  by  a  specula 
tion  like  that  of  the  magician  in  the  "Arabian  Nights" 
who  exchanges  old  lamps  for  new.  But  the  wife,  on 
the  contrary,  must  ever  feel  a  living  memory  between 
herself  and  her  husband  ;  a  memory  which  may  revive, 
and  while  wholly  outside  of  the  empire  of  the  senses, 
has  the  force  of  an  old  authority  antagonistic  to  her 
young  influence.  In  such  a  position  the  wife  is  a 
victim. 

During  the  short  time  we  have  taken  to  give  this 
brief  analysis  of  a  situation  too  frequently  existing, 
Rastignac  lingered  at  the  door. 

'*  Well,"  he  said  at  last,  deciding  to  retire,  "  good- 
night, Augusta." 

As  he  said  the  words,  rather  piteously,  the  door 
opened  suddenly,  and  his  wife,  throwing  herself  into 
his  arms,  laid  her  head  upon  his  shoulder  sobbing. 

The  question  was  answered :  Madame  de  Rastignac 
loved  her  husband ;  but  for  all  that,  the  distant  mut- 
tering of  a  subterranean  fire  might  be  heard  beneath 
the  flowers  of  theii*  garden. 


330  The  Beauty  of  Arcis. 


III. 

A  minister's  morning. 

The  next  day,  when  Kastignac  entered  his  office, 
the  adjoining  waiting-room  was  akeady  occupied  by 
eleven  persons  waiting  with  letters  of  introduction  to 
solicit  favors,  also  two  peers  of  France  and  several 
deputies. 

Presently  a  bell  rang.  The  usher,  with  an  eagerness 
which  communicated  itself  to  all  present,  entered  the 
sanctum ;  an  instant  later  he  came  out,  bearing  this 
stereotyped  message :  — 

"  The  minister  is  obliged  to  attend  a  Council.  He 
will,  however,  have  the  honor  to  receive  the  gentlemen 
of  the  two  Chambers.  As  for  the  others,  they  can 
call  again  at  another  time." 

"  What  other  time?"  asked  one  of  the  postponed; 
"  this  is  the  third  time  in  three  days  that  I  have  come 
here  uselessly." 

The  usher  made  a  gesture  which  meant,  "It  is  not 
my  affair ;  I  follow  my  orders."  But  hearing  certain 
murmurs  as  to  the  privilege  granted  to  honorable 
members,  he  said,  with  a  certain  solemnity,  — 

"  The  honorable  gentlemen  came  to  discuss  affairs 
of  public  interest  with  his  Excellency." 

The  office-seekers,  being  compelled  to  accept  this 
fib,  departed.  After  which  the  bell  rang  again.  The 
usher  then  assumed  his  most  gracious  expression  of 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  331 

face.  By  natural  affinity,  the  lucky  ones  had  gathered 
in  a  group  at  one  end  of  the  room.  Though  they  had 
never  seen  one  another  before,  most  of  them  being  the 
offspring  of  the  late  national  lying-in,  they  seemed  to 
recognize  a  certain  representative  air  which  is  very 
difficult  to  define,  though  it  can  never  be  mistaken. 
The  usher,  not  venturing  to  choose  among  so  many 
eminent  personages,  turned  a  mute,  caressing  glance 
on  all,  as  if  to  say,  — 

"  Whom  shall  I  have  the  honor  of  first  announcing?  " 

"Gentlemen,"  said  Colonel  Frauchessini,  '*•!  believe 
I  have  seen  you  all  arrive." 

And  he  walked  to  the  closed  door,  which  the  usher 
threw  open,  announcing  in  a  loud,  clear  voice,  — 

' '  Monsieur  le  Colonel  Frauchessini !  " 

''  Ha !  so  you  are  the  first  this  morning,"  said  the  min- 
ister, making  a  few  steps  towards  the  colonel,  and  giv- 
ing him  his  hand.  '*  What  have  you  come  for,  my  dear 
fellow?. —  a  railroad,  a  canal,  a  suspension  bridge?  " 

''  I  have  come,  my  good-natured  minister,  on  private 
business  in  which  you  are  more  interested  than  I." 

"  That  is  not  a  judicious  way  of  urging  it,  fori  warn 
you  I  pay  little  or  no  attention  to  my  own  business." 

*'  I  had  a  visit  from  Maxirne  this  morning,  on  his 
return  from  Arcis-sur-Aube, "  said  the  colonel,  coming 
to  the  point.  ''He  gave  me  all  particulars  of  that 
election.  He  thinks  a  spoke  might  be  put  in  the  wheel 
of  it.  Now,  if  you  have  time  to  let  me  make  a  few 
explanations  —  " 

The  minister,  who  was  sitting  before  his  desk  with  his 
back  to  the  fireplace,  turned  round  to  look  at  the  clock. 

*'  Look  here,  my  dear  fellow,"  he  said,  ''  I  'm  afraid 


332  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

you  will  be  long,  and  I  have  a  hungry  pack  outside 
there  waiting  for  me.  I  should  n't  listen  to  you  com- 
fortably. Do  me  the  favor  to  go  and  take  a  walk  and 
come  back  at  twelve  o'clock  to  breakfast.  I  '11  present 
you  to  Madame  de  Rastignac,  whom  you  don't  know, 
I  think,  and  after  breakfast  we  will  take  a  few  turns 
in  the  garden ;  then  I  can  listen  to  you  in  peace." 

''Very  good,  I  accept  that  arrangement,"  said  the 
colonel,  rising. 

As  he  crossed  the  waiting-room,  he  said, — 
"  Messieurs,  I  have  not  delayed  you  long,  I  hope." 
Then,  after  distributing  a  few  grasps  of  the  hand, 
he  departed. 

Three  hours  later,  when  the  colonel  entered  the  salon 
where  he  was  presented  to  Madame  de  Rastignac,  he 
found  there  the  Baron  de  Nucingen,  who  came  nearly 
every  day  to  breakfast  with  his  son-in-law  before  the 
Bourse  hour,  Emile  Blondet  of  the  "  Debats,"  Mes- 
sieurs Moreau  (de  I'Oise),  Dionis,  and  Camusot,  three 
deputies  madly  loquacious,  and  two  newly  elected 
deputies  whose  names  it  is  doubtful  if  Rastignac  knew 
himself.  Franchessini  also  recognized  Martial  de  la 
Roche-Hugon,  the  minister's  brother-in-law,  and  the 
inevitable  des  Lupeaulx,  peer  of  France.  As  for  an- 
other figure,  who  stood  talking  with  the  minister  for 
some  time  in  the  recess  of  a  window,  the  colonel 
learned,  after  inquiring  of  Emile  Blondet,  that  it  was 
that  of  a  former  functionary  of  the  upper  police,  who 
continued,  as  an  amateur,  to  do  part  of  his  former 
business,  going  daily  to  each  minister  under  all  admin- 
istrations with  as  much  zeal  and  regularity  as  if  he  were 
still  charged  with  his  official  duties. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  333 

Madame  de  Rastignac  seen  at  close  quarters  seemed 
to  the  colonel  a  handsome  blonde,  not  at  all  languish- 
ing. She  was  strikingly  like  her  mother,  but  with  that 
shade  of  greater  distinction  which  in  the  descendants 
of  parvenus  increases  from  generation  to  generation  as 
they  advance  from  their  source.  The  last  drop  of  the 
primitive  Goriot  blood  had  evaporated  in  this  charm- 
ing young  woman,  who  was  particularly  remarkable 
for  the  high-bred  delicacy  of  all  her  extremities,  the 
absence  of  which  in  Madame  de  Nucingen  had  shown 
the  daughter  of  P^re  Goriot. 

As  the  colonel  wished  to  retain  a  footing  in  the 
house  he  now  entered  for  the  first  time,  he  talked 
about  his  wife. 

"  She  lived,"  he  said,  ''  in  the  old  English  fashion, 
in  her  home  ;  but  he  should  be  most  glad  to  bring  her 
out  of  her  retreat  in  order  to  present  her  to  Madame 
de  Rastignac,  if  the  latter  would  graciously  consent." 

''  Now,"  said  the  minister,  dropping  the  arm  of 
!^mile  Blondet,  with  whom  he  had  been  conversing, 
*' let  us  go  into  the  garden,"  —  adding,  as  soon  as 
they  were  alone,  "We  want  no  ears  about  us  in  this 
matter." 

''  Maxime  came  to  see  me,  as  I  told  you,"  said  the 
colonel,  ''on  his  return  from  Arcis-sur-Aube,  and  he 
is  full  of  an  idea  of  discovering  something  about  the 
pretended  parentage  of  this  sculptor  by  which  to  oust 
him  —  " 

"I  know,"  interrupted  Rastignac;  ''he  spoke  to 
me  about  that  idea,  and  there  *s  neither  rhyme  nor 
reason  in  it.  Either  this  Sallenauve  has  some  value, 
or  he  is   a  mere  cipher.     If  the  latter,  it  is  useless 


334  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

to  employ  such  a  dangerous  instrument  as  the  man 
Maxime  proposes  to  neutralize  a  power  that  does  not 
exist.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  this  new  deputy  proves 
really  an  orator,  we  can  deal  with  him  in  the  tribune 
and  in  the  newspapers  without  the  help  of  such  under- 
ground measures.  General  rule :  in  a  land  of  un- 
bridled publicity  like  ours,  wherever  the  hand  of  the 
police  appears,  if  even  to  lay  bare  the  most  shameful 
villany,  there 's  always  a  hue  and  cry  against  the 
government.  Public  opinion  behaves  like  the  man  to 
whom  another  man  sang  an  air  of  Mozart  to  prove 
that  Mozart  was  a  great  musician.  Was  he  van- 
quished by  evidence?  'Mozart,'  he  replied  to  the 
singer,  '  may  have  been  a  great  musician,  but  you, 
my  dear  fellow,  have  a  cold  in  your  head.'" 

'^  There's  a  great  deal  of  truth  in  what  you  say," 
replied  Franchessini ;  ''but  the  man  whom  Maxime 
wants  to  unmask  may  be  one  of  those  honest  medioc- 
rities who  make  themselves  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  all 
administrations ;  your  most  dangerous  adversaries  are 
not  the  giants  of  oratory." 

"  I  expect  to  find  out  the  real  weight  of  the  man 
before  long,"  replied  Rastigna,c,  "  from  a  source  I 
have  more  confidence  in  than  I  have  in  Monsieur  de 
Trailles.  On  this  very  occasion  he  has  allowed  him- 
self to  be  tripped  up,  and  now  wants  to  compensate 
by  heroic  measures  for  his  own  lack  of  ability.  As 
for  your  other  man,  I  shall  not  employ  him  for  the 
purpose  Maxime  suggests,  but  you  may  tell  him  from 
me  —  " 

"  Yes  !  "  said  Franchessini,  with  redoubled  attention. 

"  —  that  if  he  meddles  in  politics,  as  he  shows  an 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  335 

inclination  to  do,  there  are  certain  deplorable  memories 
in  his  life  —  " 

*' But  they  are  only  memories  now;  he  has  made 
himself  a  new  skin." 

*'I  know  all  about  him,"  replied  Rastignac ;  ''do 
you  suppose  there  are  no  other  detectives  in  Paris  ?  I 
know  that  since  1830,  when  lie  took  Bibi-Lupin's  place 
as  chief  of  the  detective  police,  he  has  given  his  life  a 
most  respectably  bourgeois  character;  the  only  fault 
I  find  is  that  he  overdoes  it." 

"  And  yet  —  "  said  the  colonel. 

"  He  is  rich,"  continued  Rastignac,  not  heeding  the 
Interruption.  "  His  salary  is  twelve  thousand  francs, 
and  he  has  the  three  hundred  thousand  Lucien  de 
Rubempre  left  him,  —  also  the  proceeds  of  a  manu- 
factory of  varnished  leather  which  he  started  at  Gen- 
tilly  ;  it  pays  him  a  large  profit.  His  aunt,  Jacqueline 
Collin,  who  lives  with  him,  still  does  a  shady  business 
secretly,  which  of  course  brings  in  large  fees,  and  I 
have  the  best  of  reasons  for  believing  that  they  both 
gamble  at  the  Bourse.  He  is  so  anxious  to  keep  out 
of  the  mud  that  he  has  gone  to  the  other  extreme. 
Every  evening  he  plays  dominoes,  like  any  bourgeois, 
in  a  caf6  near  the  Prefecture,  and  Sundays  he  goes  out 
to  a  little  box  of  a  place  he  has  bought  near  the  forest 
of  Romainville,  in  the  Saint-Gervais  meadows;  there 
he  cultivates  blue  dahlias,  and  talked,  last  year,  of 
crowning  a  Rosiere.  All  that,  my  dear  colonel,  is  too 
bucolic  to  allow  of  my  employing  him  on  any  political 
police-work." 

*'  I  think  myself,"  said  Franchessini,  "  that  in  order  not 
to  attract  attention  he  rolls  himself  too  much  into  a  ball." 


336  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

"  Make  him  unwind,  and  then,  if  he  wants  to  return 
to  active  life  and  take  a  hand  in  politics,  he  may  find 
some  honest  way  of  doing  so.  He'll  never  make  a 
Saint  Vincent  de  Paul,  —  though  the  saint  was  at  the 
galleys  once  upon  a  time ;  but  there  are  plenty  of  ways 
in  which  he  could  get  a  third  or  fourth  class  reputa- 
tion. If  Monsieur  de  Saint-Esteve,  as  he  now  calls 
himself,  takes  that  course,  and  I  am  still  in  power,  tell 
him  to  come  and  see  me  ;  I  might  employ  him  then." 

"  That  is  something,  certainly,"  said  Franchessini, 
aloud ;  but  he  thought  to  himself  that  since  the  days 
of  the  pension  Vauquer  the  minister  had  taken  long 
strides  and  that  r61es  had  changed  between  himself  and 
Vautrin. 

"  You  can  tell  him  what  I  say,"  continued  Rastignac, 
going  up  the  steps  of  the  portico,  "but  be  cautious 
how  you  word  it." 

'*  Don't  be  uneasy,"  replied  the  colonel.  ''  I  will 
speak  to  him  judiciously,  for  he  's  a  man  who  must  not 
be  pushed  too  far;  there  are  some  old  scores  in  life 
one  can't  wipe  out." 

The  minister,  by  making  no  reply  to  this  remark, 
seemed  to  admit  the  truth  of  it. 

"  You  must  be  in  the  Chamber  when  the  king  opens 
it;  we  shall  want  all  the  enthusiasm  we  can  muster," 
said  Rastignac  to  the  colonel,  as  they  parted. 

The  latter,  when  he  took  leave  of  Madame  de  Ras- 
tignac, asked  on  what  day  he  might  have  the  honor  of 
presenting  his  wife. 

"Why,  any  day,"  replied  the  countess,  "but  par- 
ticularly on  Fridays." 


The  Deputy  of  Ards.  337 


IV. 


A   CATECHISM. 


Rastignac  called  on  Madame  de  I'Estorade  the  next 
day  at  the  hour  named  to  him  by  his  wife.  Like  all 
those  present  at  the  scene  produced  by  Monsieur  de 
RonqueroUes,  the  minister  had  been  struck  by  the 
emotion  shown  by  the  countess,  and,  without  stopping 
to  analyze  the  nature  of  the  sentiment  she  might  feel 
for  the  man  who  had  saved  her  child,  he  was  convinced 
of  her  serious  interest  in  him. 

By  the  suddenness  and  the  masterly  stroke  of  his 
election,  Sallenauve  had  become  an  object  of  strong 
interest  to  the  minister,  —  all  the  more  because  up  to 
the  last  moment  his  candidacy  was  not  seriously  con- 
sidered. It  was  now  known  that  in  the  preparatory 
meeting  he  had  given  proofs  of  talent.  To  his  active 
and  dangerous  party,  which  had  but  few  representa- 
tives in  the  Chamber,  he  might  become  an  organ  that 
would  echo  far.  By  his  peculiar  position  of  birth  and 
fortune,  whatever  might  be  the  truth  of  it,  he  was  one 
who  could  do  without  the  favors  of  government ;  and 
all  information  obtained  about  him  went  to  show  that 
he  was  a  man  of  grave  character  and  opinions,  who 
could  not  be  turned  from  his  chosen  way. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  cloud  upon  his  life  might  at 
a  given  moment  serve  to  neutralize  his  honor;   and 


338  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

Eastignac,  while  rejecting  the  proposal  of  de  Trailles 
and  Franchessini  to  put  the  mystery  into  the  hands  of 
the  police,  did  not  himself  renounce  a  means  which, 
dangerous  as  it  seemed  to  him,  he  might  use  if  occa- 
sion warranted. 

In  this  situation  Madame  de  I'Estorade  could  be 
useful  to  him  in  two  ways.  Through  her  he  could 
meet  the  new  deputy  accidentally,  without  appearing 
to  seek  him,  and  thus  study  him  at  his  ease,  in  order 
to  know  if  he  had  a  vulnerable  point  accessible  to  per- 
suasion. And,  secondly,  if  he  found  him  unpersuad- 
able, he  could  let  Madame  de  I'Estorade  know  in 
confidence  of  the  secret  inquiry  about  to  be  carried  on 
into  Sallenauve's  antecedents,  which,  conveyed  by  her 
to  the  deputy,  would  have  the  effect  of  making  him 
cautious  and,  consequently,  less  aggressive. 

However,  his  immediate  plan  suffered  some  modifi- 
cation ;  for  Madame  de  I'Estorade  was  not  at  home, 
and  he  was  just  leaving  the  house  when  Monsieur  de 
TEstorade  returned  on  foot. 

"My  wife  will  be  here  soon,"  he  said;  "she  has 
gone  to  Ville  d'Avray  with  her  daughter,  and  Monsieur 
and  Madame  Octave  de  Camps.  Monsieur  Marie- 
Gaston,  one  of  our  good  friends,  —  you  know,  the 
charming  poet  who  married  Louise  de  Chaulieu,  —  has 
a  country-house  in  that  neighborhood,  where  his  wife 
died.  He  returned  there  to-day  for  the  first  time  since 
his  misfortune ;  and  these  ladies  have  had  the  charity 
to  meet  him  there,  and  so  lessen  the  first  shock  of  his 
recollections." 

' '  I  can  therefore  hardly  hope  to  see  her  to-day ; 
and  it  was  to  her,  and  not  to  you,  my  dear  count,  that 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  339 

I  came  to  offer  my  excuses  for  the  scene  of  last  night 
which  seemed  to  annoy  her  much.  Say  to  her,  if  you 
please,  that  I  will  take  another  opportunity  of  doing 
so.  —  By  the  bye,"  he  added,  ''  the  election  of  your 
friend  Sallenauve  is  making  a  devilish  talk ;  the  king 
spoke  to  me  about  it  this  morning,  and  I  did  not  please 
him  by  repeating  the  favorable  opinion  you  expressed 
of  the  new  deputy  last  night." 

"  Well,  but  you  know  the  tribune  is  a  reef  on  which 
reputations  are  often  wrecked.  I  am  sorry  you  rep- 
resented Sallenauve  to  the  king  as  being  on  intimate 
terms  with  us.  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  elections ; 
but  I  may  say  that  I  did  all  I  could  to  dissuade  this 
objectionable  candidate  from  presenting  himself." 

''  Of  course  the  king  cannot  blame  you  for  merely 
knowing  an  Opposition  deputy." 

*'  No ;  but  last  night,  in  your  salon,  you  seemed  to 
imply  that  my  wife  was  much  interested  in  him.  I 
did  not  wish  to  contradict  you  before  witnesses;  be- 
sides, really,  one  can't  repudiate 'a  man  to  whom  we 
are  under  a  great  obligation.  But  my  wife,  ever  since 
the  day  he  was  nominated,  feels  that  our  gratitude  has 
become  a  burden.  She  was  saying  to  me  the  other  day 
that  we  had  better  let  the  acquaintance  die  out." 

'*  Not,  I  hope,  until  you  have  done  me  a  service  by 
means  of  it,"  said  Rastignac. 

"  At  your  orders,  my  dear  minister,  in  all  things." 

"  I  want  to  meet  this  man  and  judge  him  for  myself. 
To  send  him  an  invitation  to  dinner  would  be  useless  ; 
under  the  eye  of  his  party,  he  would  not  dare  accept 
it,  or  if  he  did,  he  would  be  on  his  guard,  and  I  should 
not  see  him  as  he  is.     But  if  I  met  him  accidentally,  I 


340  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

should  find  him  without  armor,  and  I  could  feel  for  his 
vulnerable  spots." 

"  To  invite  you  both  to  dine  with  me  might  be  open 
to  the  same  objection  ;  but  I  could,  one  of  these  even- 
ings, make  sure  of  a  visit  from  him,  and  let  you 
know —  Stop!"  cried  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade ;  "a 
bright  idea  has  come  to  me." 

"If  it  is  really  bright,"  thought  Rastignac,  ''it  is 
fortunate  I  did  not  meet  the  wife." 

"We  are  just  about  to  give  a  children's  ball,  —  a 
fancy  of  my  little  girl,  to  which  Madame  de  I'Estorade, 
weary  of  refusing,  has  at  last  consented ;  the  child 
wishes  it  to  be  given  in  celebration  of  her  rescue.  Of 
course,  therefore,  the  rescuer  is  a  necessary  and  inte- 
gral part  of  the  affair.  Come  to  the  ball,  and  I  prom- 
ise you  noise  enough  to  cover  all  investigations  of  your 
man;  and  certainly  premeditation  will  never  be  sus- 
pected at  such  a  meeting." 

"  You  are  too  good,"  replied  Rastignac,  pressing  the 
peer's  hand  affectionately.  "Perhaps  we  had  better 
say  nothing  about  it  to  Madame  de  I'Estorade ;  a  mere 
hint  given  to  our  man  would  put  him  on  his  guard,  and 
I  want  to  spring  upon  him  suddenly,  like  a  tiger  on  his 
prey." 

"  That 's  understood  —  complete  surprise  to  every- 
body." 

"  Adieu,  then,"  said  Rastignac;  "  I  shall  make  the 
king  laugh  to-morrow  at  the  notion  of  children  plotting 
politics." 

"  Ah  !  "  replied  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  philosophi- 
cally, "  but  isn't  that  how  life  itself  is  carried  on?  — 
great  effects  from  little  causes." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  341 

Rastignac  bad  scarcely  departed  before  Madame  de 
I'Estorade  returned  with  Nais  and  Monsieur  and  Ma- 
dame de  Camps. 

''My  dear,"  said  her  husband,  "you  have  just 
missed  a  charming  visitor." 

''  Who  was  it?"  asked  the  countess,  indifferently. 

"  The  minister  of  Public  Works,  who  came  to  make 
you  his  excuses.  He  noticed  with  regret  the  disagree- 
able impression  made  upon  you  b}^  the  theories  of  that 
scamp  de  Ronquerolles." 

''  He  has  taken  a  good  deal  of  trouble  for  a  very 
small  matter,"  said  Madame  de  I'Estorade,  not  sharing 
her  husband's  enthusiasm. 

"But  all  the  same,"  he  replied,  "it  was  very 
gracious  of  him  to  think  of  your  feelings."  Then,  in 
order  to  change  the  conversation,  he  asked  Madame  de 
Camps  about  their  visit. 

"  Oh!  "  she  replied,  "  the  place  is  enchanting;  you 
have  no  idea  of  its  elegance  and  comfort.'' 

"  How  about  Gaston  ?  "  asked  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade. 

"  He  was,  I  won't  say  very  calm,"  replied  Madame 
de  I'Estorade,  "  but  at  any  rate  master  of  himself. 
His  condition  satisfied  me  all  the  more  because  the  day 
had  begun  by  a  serious  annoyance  to  him." 

"  What  was  it?" 

"  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  could  not  come  with  him," 
replied  Nal's,  taking  upon  herself  to  reply. 

She  was  one  of  those  children  brought  up  in  a  hot- 
house, who  put  themselves  forward  much  oftener  than 
they  ought  to  do. 

"Nais,"  said  Madame  de  I'Estorade,  "go  to  Mary 
and  tell  her  to  do  up  your  hair." 


342  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

The  child  understood  perfectly  well  that  she  was 
sent  away  for  speaking  improperly,  and  she  made  a 
face  as  she  left  the  room. 

"  This  morning,"  said  Madame  de  I'Estorade  as  soon 
as  Nai's  had  shut  the  door,  "Monsieur  Gaston  and 
Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  were  to  start  together  for 
Ville  d'Avray,  and  meet  us  there,  as  agreed  upon. 
But  last  night  they  had  a  visit  from  that  organist  who 
took  such  an  active  part  in  the  election.  He  came  to 
hear  the  Italian  housekeeper  sing  and  judge  if  she  were 
ready  to  go  upon  the  stage." 

"Yes,  yes,"  said  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade;  "of 
course  Sallenauve  wants  to  get  rid  of  her  now  that  he 
has  ceased  to  make  statues." 

"Just  so,"  replied  Madame  de  I'Estorade,  with  a 
slight  tone  of  asperity.  "  In  order  to  put  a  stop  to  all 
calumny  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  wishes  her  to  carry  out 
her  idea  of  going  on  the  stage  ;  but  he  wanted,  in  the 
first  place,  an  opinion  he  could  trust.  Monsieur  Gaston 
and  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  accompanied  the  organist 
to  Saint-Sulpice,  where,  during  the  services  of  the 
Month  of  Mary,  the  Italian  woman  sings  every  even- 
ing. After  hearing  her,  the  organist  said  she  had  a 
fine  contralto  that  was  worth,  at  the  lowest,  sixty 
thousand  francs  a  year." 

"  Just  the  revenue  of  my  iron-works,"  remarked 
Monsieur  de  Camps. 

"  That  evening,"  continued  Madame  de  I'Estorade, 
"  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  told  his  housekeeper  the 
opinion  given  of  her  talent,  and  with  great  kindness 
and  delicacy  let  her  know  that  she  must  now  carry  out 
her  intention  of  supporting  herself  in  that  way.    '  Yes,' 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  343 

she  replied,  '  I  think  the  time  has  come.  We  will 
talk  of  it  later ;  "  and  she  stopped  the  conversation. 
This  morning  when  the  breakfast  hour  came,  there  was 
no  sign  of  her.  Thinking  she  must  be  ill,  Monsieur  de 
Sallenauve  sent  an  old  charwoman  who  does  the  rough 
work  of  the  house  to  her  room.  No  answer.  Much 
disturbed.  Monsieur  Gaston  and  Monsieur  de  Sal- 
lenauve went  themselves  to  see  what  it  meant.  After 
knocking  and  calling  in  vain,  they  determined  to  open 
the  door,  the  key  of  which  was  outside.  In  the  room 
no  housekeeper !  but  in  place  of  her  a  letter  addressed 
to  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve,  in  which  she  said  that  find- 
ing herself  an  embarrassment  to  him,  she  had  retired  to 
the  house  of  one  of  her  friends,  thanking  him  for  all 
his  goodness  to  her." 

*'The  bird  has  found  its  wings,"  said  Monsieur  de 
I'Estorade,  "  and  takes  flight" 

*'  That  is  not  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve*s  idea,"  re- 
plied the  countess ;  ''  he  does  not  believe  in  such  in- 
gratitude. He  is  confident  that,  feeling  herself  a 
burden  to  him  and  yielding  to  the  desperation  which  is 
natural  to  her,  she  felt  obliged  to  leave  his  house  with- 
out giving  him  a  chance  in  any  manner  to  provide  for 
her  future." 

*'A  good  riddance!"  remarked  Monsieur  de 
I'Estorade. 

"Neither  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  nor  Monsieur 
Gaston  takes  that  stoical  view  of  it.  In  view  of  the 
headstrong  nature  of  the  woman,  they  fear  some  vio- 
lence to  herself,  which,  as  we  know,  she  once  attempted. 
Or  else  they  dread  some  evil  adviser.  The  char- 
woman states  that  two  or  three  visits  have  been  lately 


344  The  Deputy  of  Areis. 

made  at  the  house  by  a  lady  of  middle  age,  richly 
dressed,  in  a  carriage,  whose  manner  was  singular,  and 
who  seemed  to  desire  secrecy  in  speaking  with  Luigia." 

'^  Some  charitable  woman,  of  course,"  said  Mon- 
sieur de  I'Estorade  ;  "  the  runaway  is  given  to  piety." 

"  At  any  rate  the  truth  must  be  discovered,  and  it 
was  that  which  kept  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  from  ac- 
companying Monsieur  Gaston  to  Ville  d'Avray.'' 

"Well,"  remarked  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  ''in 
spite  of  their  respective  virtue,  it  is  my  opinion  he 
holds  by  her." 

''In  any  case,"  returned  Madame  de  I'Estorade,  em- 
phasizing the  word,  "  she  does  not  liold  by  him." 

"  I  don't  agree  with  yon,"  said  Madame  de  Camps ; 
"  to  avoid  a  man  is  often  the  greatest  proof  of  love." 

Madame  de  I'Estorade  looked  at  her  friend  with  a 
vexed  air,  and  a  slight  tinge  of  color  came  into  her 
cheeks.  But  no  one  took  notice  of  it,  for  at  this 
moment  the  servant  threw  open  the  door  and  an- 
nounced dinner. 

After  dinner,  the  theatre  was  proposed  ;  that  is  one 
of  the  amusements  that  Parisians  miss  the  most  in  the 
provinces.  Monsieur  Octave  de  Camps,  coming  from 
his  "  villanous  iron-works,"  as  Madame  de  I'Estorade 
called  them,  had  arrived  in  Paris  eager  for  this  pleas- 
ure, which  his  wife,  more  serious  and  sober,  did  not 
enjoy  to  the  same  extent.  Therefore,  when  Monsieur 
de  Camps  proposed  going  to  the  Porte-Saint-Martin  to 
see  a  fairy  piece  then  much  in  vogue,  Madame  Octave 
replied :  — 

"  Neither  Madame  de  I'Estorade  nor  I  have  the  least 
desire  to  go  out  this  evening ;  we  are  very  tired  with 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  345 

our  expedition.  Take  Rene  and  Nais  ;  they  will  enjoy 
the  fairies  far  more  than  we." 

The  two  children  awaited  in  deep  anxiety  the  per- 
mission which  Madame  de  I'Estorade  finally  granted ; 
and  a  few  moments  later  the  fwo  friends,  left  to  them- 
selves, prepared  for  an  evening  of  comfortable  talk. 

"  I  am  not  at  home  to  any  one,"  said  Madame  de 
I'Estorade  to  Lucas,  as  soon  as  her  family  had 
departed. 

"Now  that  we  are  alone,"  said  Madame  de  Camps, 
"  I  shall  proceed  to  blows ;  I  have  not  travelled  two 
hundred  miles  to  wrap  up  in  cotton-wool  the  truth  I 
have  come  to  tell  you." 

*' Ready  to  hear  it,"  said  Madame  de  I'Estorade, 
laughing. 

"  Your  last  letter,  my  dear,  simply  frightened  me." 

*'  Why?  Because  I  told  you  I  was  trying  to  keep  a 
man  at  a  distance?" 

**  Yes.  Why  keep  him  at  a  distance?  If  Monsieur 
de  Camps  or  Monsieur  Gaston  or  Monsieur  de  Ras- 
tignac  were  to  make  a  practice  of  coming  here  habit- 
ually, would  you  trouble  yourself  about  them  ?  " 

'*  No;  but  they  have  not  the  same  claim  upon  me: 
it  is  that  I  fear." 

*'  Tell  me,  do  you  think  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve 
loves  you  ?  " 

''No;  I  am  now  quite  sure  to  the  contrary;  and  I 
also  think  that  on  my  side  —  " 

''We'll  talk  about  that  presently;  now  I  want  to 
ask  if  you  desire  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  to  love  you  ?  " 

"Heaven  forbid!" 

"  Well,  then,  the  best  possible  way  to  make  him  do 


846  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

so  is  to  wound  his  self-love,  and  show  yourself  unjust 
and  ungrateful  to  him ;  you  will  only  force  him  to 
think  the  more  of  you." 

''  But,  my  dear  friend,  isn't  that  a  very  far-fetched 
observation?" 

''Did  you  never  observe  that  men  are  more  taken 
by  our  snubs  than  our  caresses  ?  Severity  fixes  their 
attention  upon  us." 

"  If  that  were  so,  all  the  men  we  disdain  and  never 
think  of  would  sigh  for  us." 

''  Oh !  my  dear,  don't  make  me  talk  such  nonsense. 
To  take  fire,  a  man  must  have  some  degree  of  combus- 
tibility ;  and  if  that  other  person  is  lost  to  him  forever, 
why  should  n't  he,  as  you  said  yourself,  ricochet  upon 
you?" 

''  That  other  person  is  not  lost  to  him;  he  expects, 
more  than  ever,  to  find  her  by  the  help  of  a  very 
clever  seeker,  the  mother-superior  of  a  convent  at 
Arcis." 

"Very  good  ;  then  why  employ  the  delay  in  holding 
him  at  arm's-length,  —  a  proceeding  which  will  only 
draw  him  towards  you  ?  " 

"  My  dear  moralist,  I  don't  admit  your  theory  in 
the  least.  As  for  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve,  he  will  be 
much  too  busy  with  his  duties  in  the  Chamber  to  think 
of  me.  Besides,  he  is  a  man  who  is  full  of  self- 
respect;  he  will  be  mortified  by  my  manner,  which 
will  seem  to  him  both  ungrateful  and  unjust.  If  I 
try  to  put  two  feet  of  distance  between  us,  he  will  put 
four  ;  you  may  rely  on  that." 

"  And  you^  my  dear?  "  asked  Madame  de  Camps. 

"  How  do  you  mean ?  —  I?" 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  347 

"  Yqu  who  are  not  busy,  who  have  no  Chamber  to 
occupy  your  mind ;  you  who  have,  I  will  agree,  a  great 
deal  of  self-respect,  but  who  know  as  little  about  the 
things  of  the  heart  as  the  veriest  school-girl,  —  what 
will  become  of  you  under  the  dangerous  system  you 
are  imposing  upon  yourself?  '* 

*'If  I  don't  love  him  when  near,  I  shall  certainly 
love  him  still  less  at  a  distance." 

''  So  that  when  you  see  him  take  his  ostracism 
coolies  your  self-love  as  a  woman  will  not  be  piqued." 

*' Certainly  not;  that  is  precisely  the  result  I 
desire." 

*'  And  if  you  find,  on  the  contrary,  that  he  complains 
of  you,  or  if  he  does  not  complain,  that  he  suffers 
from  your  treatment,  will  your  conscience  tell  you 
absolutely  nothing?" 

''  It  will  tell  me  that  I  am  doing  right,  and  that  I 
could  not  do  otherwise." 

**And  if  success  attends  him  and  fame  with  its 
hundred  voices  talks  of  him,  how  will  you  think  of 
him?" 

"As  I  think  of  Monsieur  Thiers  and  Monsieur 
Berryer." 

''And  Nais,  who  adores  him  and  will  probably  say, 
the  first  time  he  dines  with  you,  '  Ah !  mamma,  how 
well  he  talks!'  —  " 

''  If  you  are  going  to  argue  on  the  chatter  of  a 
child  —  " 

*'  And  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  who  already  irritates 
you?  He  is  beginning  to-day  to  sacrifice  him  to  the 
spirit  of  party ;  shall  you  silence  him  every  time  he 
makes  some  malevolent  insinuation  about  Monsieur  de 


348  The  Dejputy  of  Arcis. 

Sallenauve,  and  denies  his  honor  and  his  talent?  —  you 
know  the  judgment  people  make  on  those  who  do  not 
think  as  we  do." 

*'  In  short,"  said  Madame  de  I'Estorade,  "  you  are 
trying  to  make  me  admit  that  the  surest  way  to  think 
of  a  person  is  to  put  him  out  of  sight." 

''  Listen  to  me,  my  dear,"  said  Madame  de  Camps, 
with  a  slight  touch  of  gravity.  "  I  have  read  and  re- 
read your  letters.  You  were  there  your  own  self, 
more  natural  and  less  quibbling  than  you  are  now, 
and  an  impression  has  remained  upon  my  mind :  it  is 
that  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  has  touched  your  heart, 
though  he  may  not  have  entered  it." 

Madame  de  I'Estorade  made  a  gesture  of  denial,  but 
the  confessor  went  on  :  — 

"I  know  that  idea  provokes  you;  you  can't  very 
well  admit  to  me  what  you  have  studiously  denied  to 
yourself.  But  what  is,  is.  We  don't  say  of  a  man, 
'  A  sort  of  magnetism  issues  from  him,  one  feels  his 
eye  without  meeting  it;'  we  don't  cry  out,  'I  am  in- 
vulnerable on  the  side  of  love,'  without  having  had 
some  prickings  of  it." 

"  But  so  many  things  have  happened  since  I  wrote 
that  nonsense." 

"  True,  he  was  only  a  sculptor  then,  and  before  long 
he  may  be  a  minister,  —  not  like  Monsieur  de  Ras- 
tignac,  but  like  our  great  poet,  Canalis." 

"I  like  sermons  with  definite  deductions,"  said  Ma- 
dame de  I'Estorade,  with  a  touch  of  impatience. 

"  That  is  what  Vergniaud  said  to  Robespierre  on 
the  31st  of  May,  and  1  reply,  with  Robespierre,  Yes, 
I  '11  draw  my  conclusion  ;  and  it  is  against  your  self- 


The  Dep^Uy  of  Arcis.  349 

confidence  as  a  woman,  who,  having  reached  the  age 
of  thirty-two  without  a  suspicion  of  what  love  is,  can- 
not admit  that  at  this  late  date  she  may  be  subjected 
to  the  common  law." 

''  But  what  I  want  is  a  practical  conclusion,"  said 
Madame  de  I'Estorade,  tapping  her  foot. 

"  My  practical  conclusion,  —  here  it  is,"  replied 
Madame  Octave.  ''  If  you  will  not  persist  in  the  folly 
of  swimming  against  the  current,  I  see  no  danger  what- 
ever in  your  being  submerged.  You  are  strong ;  you 
have  principles  and  religion ;  you  adore  your  chil- 
dren ;  you  love  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  their  father,  in 
them.     With  all  that  ballast  you  cannot  sink." 

"Well?"  said  Madame  de  I'Estorade,  interroga- 
tively. 

'*  Well,  there  is  no  need  to  have  recourse  to  violent 
measures,  the  success  of  which  is  very  problematical. 
Remain  as  you  are ;  build  no  barricades  when  no  one 
attacks  you.  Don't  excite  tempests  of  heart  and  con- 
science merely  to  pacify  your  conscience  and  quiet 
your  heart,  now  ruffled  only  by  a  tiny  breeze.  No 
doubt  between  a  man  and  a  woman  the  sentiment  of 
friendship  does  take  something  of  the  character  ordi- 
narily given  to  love ;  but  such  friendship  is  neither  an 
impossible  illusion  nor  is  it  a  yawning  gulf." 

*'  Then,"  said  Madame  de  I'Estorade,  with  a  thought- 
ful air,  "do  you  wish  me  to  make  a  friend  of  Monsieur 
de  Sallenauve?" 

"  Yes,  dear,  in  order  not  to  make  him  a  fixed  idea, 
a  regret,  a  struggle,  —  three  things  which  poison  life.** 

"But  my  husband,  who  has  already  had  a  touch 
of  jealousy  ?  " 


350  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

'*  As  for  your  husband,  I  find  him  somewhat  changed, 
and  not  for  the  bettei;.  I  miss  that  deference  he  al- 
ways showed  to  you  personally,  to  your  ideas  and 
impressions,  —  a  deference  which  honored  him  more 
than  he  thought,  because  there  is  true  greatness  in  the 
power  to  admire.  I  may  be  mistaken,  but  it  seems  to 
me  that  public  life  is  spoiling  him  a  little.  As  you 
cannot  be  with  him  in  the  Chamber  of  peers,  he  is  be- 
ginning to  suspect  that  he  can  have  a  life  without  you. 
If  I  were  you,  I  should  watch  these  symptoms  of  inde- 
pendence, and  not  let  the  work  of  your  lifetime  come 
to  nought." 

"  Do  you  know,  my  dear,"  said  Madame  de  I'Esto- 
rade,  laughing,  "that  you  are  giving  me  advice  that 
may  end  in  fire  and  slaughter  ?  " 

"  Not  at  all.  I  am  a  woman  forty-five  years  of  age, 
who  has  always  seen  things  on  their  practical  side.  I 
did  not  marry  my  husband,  whom  I  loved,  until  I  had 
convinced  myself,  by  putting  him  to  the  test,  that  he 
was  worthy  of  my  esteem.  I  don't  make  life ;  T  take 
it  as  it  comes,  —  trying  to  put  order  and  possibility  into 
all  the  occurrences  it  brings  to  me.  I  am  neither  the 
frenzied  passion  of  Louise  de  Chaulieu,  nor  the  insen- 
sible reason  of  Renee  de  Maucombe.  I  am  a  Jesuit  in 
petticoats,  persuaded  that  rather  wide  sleeves  are  bet- 
ter than  sleeves  that  are  tight  to  the  wrist ;  and  I  have 
never  gone  in  search  of  the  philosopher's  stone  —  " 

At  this  instant  Lucas  opened  the  door  of  the  salon 
and  announced,  — 

"  Monsieur  le  Comte  de  Sallenauve." 

His  mistress  gave  him  a  look  inquiring  why  he  had 
disobeyed  her  orders,  to  which  Lucas  replied  by  a  sign 


The  Deputy  of  ArciB.  361 

implying  that  he  did  not  suppose  the  prohibition  applied 
in  this  instance. 

Madame  de  Camps,  who  had  never  yet  seen  the  new 
deputy,  now  gave  her  closest  attention  to  a  study  of 
him. 

Sallenauve  explained  his  visit  by  his  great  desire  to 
know  how  matters  had  gone  at  Ville  d'Avray,  and 
whether  Marie- Gaston  had  been  deeply  affected  by  his 
return  there.  As  for  the  business  which  detained  him 
in  Paris,  he  said  he  had  so  far  met  with  no  success. 
He  had  seen  the  prefect  of  police,  who  had  given  him 
a  letter  to  Monsieur  de  Saint-Esteve,  the  chief  of  the 
detective  police.  Aware  of  the  antecedents  of  that 
man,  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  expressed  himself  as 
much  surprised  to  find  a  functionary  with  extremely 
good  manners  and  bearing;  but  he  held  out  faint 
hopes  of  success.  "A  woman  hiding  in  Paris,"  he 
said,  'Ms  an  eel  in  its  safest  hole."  He  (Sallenauve) 
should  continue  the  search  the  next  day  with  the  help 
of  Jacques  Bricheteau ;  but  if  nothing  came  of  it,  he 
should  go  in  the  evening  to  Ville  d'Avray,  for  he  did 
not,  he  said,  share  Madame  de  I'Estorade's  security  as 
to  Gaston's  state  of  mind. 

As  he  was  taking  leave,  Madame  de  TEstorade  said 
to  him,  — 

*'  Do  not  forget  Nais'  ball  which  takes  place  the 
day  after  to-morrow.  You  will  affront  her  mortally  if 
you  fail  to  be  present.  Try  to  bring  Monsieur  Gaston 
with  you.     It  might  divert  his  mind  a  little." 


352  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 


V. 

CHILDREN. 

On  his  return  from  the  theatre  Monsieur  Octave  de 
Camps  declared  that  it  would  be  long  before  they 
caught  him  at  a  fairy  piece  again.  -  But  Nai's,  on  the 
contrary,  under  the  spell  of  its  marvels  gave  a  lively 
recital  of  the  scene,  which  showed  how  much  her 
imagination  was  capable  of  being  stirred. 

As  Madame  de  Camps  and  her  husband  walked 
away  together,  the  former  remarked,  — 

' '  That  child  is  really  very  disquieting.  Madame 
de  I'Estorade  develops  her  too  much ;  I  should  not  be 
surprised  if  she  gave  her  a  great  deal  of  trouble  in 
future  years." 

It  would  be  difficult  to  mark  the  precise  moment  in 
our  contemporary  habits  and  customs  when  a  new 
species  of  religion,  which  might  be  called  child-idolatry, 
appeared.  Nor  shall  we  find  it  easier  to  discover  by 
what  species  of  influence  this  worship  has  reached  its 
present  enormous  development  among  us.  But,  al- 
though unexplained,  the  fact  exists  and  ought  to  be 
recorded  by  every  faithful  historian  of  the  great  and 
the  little  movements  of  society.  In  the  family  of 
to-day  children  have  taken  the  place  of  the  household 
gods  of  the  ancients,  and  whoever  does  not  share  this 
worship  is  not  a  morose  and  sour  spirit,  nor  a  captious 
and  annoying  reasoner,  —  he  is  simply  an  atheist. 


The  Deputy  of  Areis,  353 

Try  to  amuse  one  of  these  beloved  adored  ones,  all 
puffed  up,  as  they  naturally  are,  by  a  sense  of  their 
importance,  with  dolls  and  toys  and  Punch-and-Judys, 
as  in  the  days  of  our  unsophisticated  innocence  !  Non- 
sense !  l^oys  must  have  ponies  and  cigarettes,  and  the 
reading  of  novelettes  ;  and  girls,  the  delight  of  playing 
hostess,  giving  afternoon  dances,  and  evening  parties 
at  which  the  real  Guignol  of  the  Champs  £lysees  and 
Robert  Houdin  appear,  —  the  entertainment  being 
announced  on  the  invitation  cards.  Sometimes,  as 
now  in  the  case  of  Nai's  de  I'Estorade,  these  little 
sovereigns  obtain  permission  to  give  a  ball  in  grown-up 
style,  —  so  much  so,  that  policemen  are  stationed 
about  the  doors,  and  Delisle,  Nattier,  and  Prevost 
provide  the  toilets  and  the  decorations. 

With  the  character  we  have  already  seen  in  Nais,  it 
may  be  said  that  no  one  was  better  fitted  than  she  for 
the  duties  that  devolved  upon  her  by  the  abdication  of 
her  mother.  This  abdication  took  place  before  the  even- 
ing of  the  ball  itself,  for  it  was  Mademoiselle  Nais  de 
I'Estorade  who,  in  her  own  name,  invited  her  guests  to 
do  her  tlie  honor  to  pass  the  evening  clicz  elle;  and  as 
Madame  de  I'Estorade  would  not  allow  the  parody  to 
go  so  far  as  printed  cards,  Nais  spent  several  days 
in  writing  her  notes  of  invitation,  taking  care  to  put 
in  the  corner,  in  conspicuous  letters,  the  sacramental 
word,  ''  Dancing." 

Nothing  could  be  more  curious,  or,  as  Madame  de 
Camps  might  have  said,  more  alarming,  than  the  self- 
possession  of  this  little  girl  of  fourteen,  behaving  pre- 
cisely as  she  had  seen  her  mother  do  on  like  occasions ; 
stationed,  to  receive  her  company,  at  the  door  of  the 

23 


354  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

salon,  and  marking  by  her  manner  the  proper  grades 
of  welcome,  from  eager  cordiality  to  a  coldness  that 
verged  on  disdain.  To  her  best  friends  she  gave  her 
hand  in  truly  English  style ;  for  the  rest  she  had 
smiles,  apportioned  to  the  degrees  of  intimacy,  — 
simple  inclinations  of  the  head  for  unknown  guests  or 
those  of  less  account;  with  little  speeches  now  and 
then,  and  delicious  mamma-like  airs  for  the  tiny  chil- 
dren whom  it  is  necessary  to  ask  to  these  juvenile 
routs,  however  dangerous  and  difficult  to  manage  that 
element  may  be. 

With  the  fathers  and  mothers  of  her  guests,  as  the 
ball  was  not  given  for  them,  Nais  as  a  general  thing 
reversed  the  nature  of  the  Gospel  invocation,  Sinite 
parvulos  venire  ad  me,  and  was  careful  not  to  pass  the 
limit  of  cold  though  respectful  politeness.  But  when 
Lucas,  following  the  instructions  he  had  received, 
reversed  the  natural  order  of  things  and  announced, 
''  Mesdemoiselles  de  la  Roche-Hugon,  Madame  la 
Baronne  de  la  Roche-Hugon,  and  Madame  la  Comtesse 
de  Rastignac,  the  little  strategist  laid  aside  her  reserve, 
and,  running  up  to  the  wife  of  the  minister,  she  took 
her  hand  and  pressed  it  to  her  lips  with  charming 
grace. 

After  the  dancing  began,  NaVs  was  unable  to  accept 
all  the  invitations  which  the  elegant  young  lions  vied 
with  one  another  in  pressing  upon  her ;  in  fact,  she  grew 
sadly  confused  as  to  the  number  and  order  of  her  en- 
gagements, —  a  circumstance  which  very  nearly  led,  in 
spite  of  the  entente  eordiale,  to  an  open  rupture  between 
France  and  perfidious  Albion.  A  quadrille  doubly 
promised,  to  a  young  English  peer  aged  ten  and  a  pupil 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  355 

in  the  Naval  School  of  about  the  same  years,  came  very 
near  producing  unpleasant  complications,  inasmuch  as 
the  young  British  scion  of  nobiUty  had  assumed  a  boxing 
attitude.  That  fray  pacified,  another  annoying  episode 
occurred.  A  small  boy,  seeing  a  servant  with  a  tray 
of  refreshments  and  being  unable  to  reach  up  to  the 
objects  of  his  greed,  had  the  deplorable  idea  of  putting 
his  hand  on  the  edge  of  the  tray  and  bending  it  down 
to  him.  Result :  a  cascade  of  mingled  orgeat,  negus, 
and  syrups ;  and  happy  would  it  have  been  had  the 
young  author  of  this  mischief  been  the  only  sufferer 
from  the  sugary  torrent;  but,  alas!  nearly  a  dozen 
innocent  victims  were  splashed  and  spattered  by  the 
disastrous  accident,  —  among  them  four  or  five  bac- 
chantes, who  were  furious  at  seeing  their  toilets  injured, 
and  would  fain  have  made  an  Orpheus  of  the  clumsy 
infant.  While  he  was  being  rescued  with  great  diffi- 
culty from  their  clutches  by  the  German  governess,  a 
voice  was  heard  amid  the  hubbub,  —  that  of  a  pretty 
little  blonde,  saying  to  a  small  Scotch  youth  with  whom 
she  had  danced  the  whole  evening,  — 

How  odd  of   Nai's   to  invite   little  boys  of  that 


rot  " 


I 


*'  That 's  easily  explained,"  said  the  Scottish  youth  ; 
"  he  's  a  boy  of  the  Treasui'y  department.  Nai's  had 
to  ask  him  on  account  of  her  parents,  —  a  matter  of 
policy,  you  know." 

Then,  taking  the  arm  of  one  of  his  friends,  the  same 
youth  continued :  — 

''  Hey,  Ernest,  "  he  said,  *'IM  like  a  cigar  ;  suppose  we 
find  a  quiet  corner,  out  of  the  way  of  all  this  racket?  " 

'*  I   can't,    my  dear   fellow,"   replied  Ernest,  in   a 


356  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

whisper ;  "  you  kDOw  Leontine  always  makes  me  a  scene 
when  she  smells  I  've  been  smoking,  and  she  is  charming 
to  me  to-night.    See,  look  at  what  she  has  given  me  !  " 

''A  horse-hair  ring!"  exclaimed  Ernest,  disdain- 
fully, "  with  two  locked  hearts ;  all  the  boys  at  school 
have  them." 

''What  have  you  to  show  that's  better?"  replied 
Ernest,  in  a  piqued  tone. 

"Oh!"  said  the  Scotchman,  with  a  superior  air, 
''  something  much  better." 

And  drawing  from  the  pouch  which  formed  an  inte- 
gral part  of  his  costume  a  note  on  violet  paper  highly 
perfumed,  — 

''There,"  he  said,  putting  it  under  Ernest's  nose, 
"  smell  that!" 

Indelicate  friend  that  he  was,  Ernest  pounced  upon 
the  note  and  took  possession  of  it.  The  Scotch  youth, 
furious,  flung  himself  upon  the  treacherous  French 
boy;  on  which  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  a  thousand 
leagues  from  imagining  the  subject  of  the  quarrel,  in- 
tervened and  parted  the  combatants,  which  enabled 
the  ravisher  to  escape  into  a  corner  of  the  salon  to 
enjoy  his  booty.  The  note  contained  no  writing. 
The  young  scamp  had  probably  taken  the  paper  out  of 
his  mother's  blotting- book.  A  moment  after,  return- 
ing to  his  adversary  and  giving  him  the  note,  he  said 
in  a  jeering  tone,  — 

"  There  's  your  note  ;  it  is  awfully  compromising." 

"Keep  it,  monsieur,"  replied  the  Scotchman.  "I 
shall  ask  for  it  to-morrow  in  the  Tuileries,  under  the 
horse-chestnuts  ;  meantime,  you  will  please  understand 
that  all  intercourse  is  at  an  end  between  us." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  357 

Ernest  was  less  knightly ;  he  contented  himself  with 
putting  the  thumb  of  his  right  hand  to  his  nose  and 
spreading  the  fingers, — an  ironical  gesture  he  had 
acquired  from  his  mother's  coachman  ;  after  which  he 
ran  to  find  his  partner  for  the  next  quadrille. 

But  what  details  are  these  on  which  we  are  wasting 
time,  when  we  know  that  interests  of  the  highest  order 
are  moving,  subterraneously,  beneath  the  surface  of 
the  children's  ball. 

Arriving  from  Ville  d'Avray  late  in  the  afternoon, 
Sallenauve  had  brougM  Madame  de  I'Estorade  ill  news 
of  Marie-Gaston.  Under  an  appearance  of  resignation, 
he  was  gloomy,  and,  singular  to  sa}',  he  had  not  visited 
the  grave  of  his  wife,  —  as  if  he  feared  an  emotion  he 
might  not  have  the  power  to  master.  It  seemed  to 
Sallenauve  that  his  friend  had  come  to  the  end  of  his 
strength,  and  that  a  mental  prostration  of  the  worst 
character  was  succeeding  the  over-excitement  he  had 
shown  at  the  election.  One  thing  reassured  the  new 
deputy,  and  enabled  him  to  come  to  Paris  for,  at  any 
rate,  a  few  hours.  A  friend  of  Marie-Gaston,  an 
English  nobleman  with  whom  he  had  been  intimate  in 
Florence,  came  out  to  see  liim,  and  the  sad  man  greeted 
the  new-comer  with  apparent  joy. 

In  order  to  distract  Sallenauve's  thoughts  from  this 
anxiety,  Madame  de  I'Estorade  introduced  him  to 
Monsieur  Octave  de  Camps,  the  latter  having  ex- 
l)ressed  a  great  desire  to  know  him.  The  deputy  had 
not  talked  ten  minutes  with  the  iron-master  before  he 
reached  his  heart  by  the  magnitude  of  the  metallur- 
gical knowledge  his  conversation  indicated. 

During  the  year  in  which  he  had  been  preparing  for 


358  The  Beauty  of  Arcis. 

a  parliamentary  life,  Sallenauve  had  busied  himself  by 
acquiring  the  practical  knowledge  which  enables  an 
orator  of  the  Chamber  to  take  part  in  all  discussions 
and  have  reasons  to  give  for  his  general  views.  He 
had  turned  his  attention  more  especially  to  matters 
connected  with  the  great  question  of  the  revenue  and 
taxation :  such,  for  instance,  as  the  custom-house, 
laws  of  exchange,  stamp  duties,  and  taxation,  direct 
and  indirect.  Approaching  in  this  manner  that  prob- 
lematical science  —  which  is,  nevertheless,  so  sure  of 
itself !  —  called  political  economy,  Sallenauve  had  also 
studied  the  sources  which  contribute  to  form  the 
great  current  of  national  prosperity ;  and  in  this  con- 
nection the  subject  of  mines,  the  topic  at  this  moment 
most  interesting  to  Monsieur  de  Camps,  had  not  been 
neglected  by  him.  We  can  imagine  the  admiration  of 
the  iron-master,  who  had  studied  too  exclusively  the 
subject  of  iron  ore  to  know  much  about  the  other 
branches  of  metallurgy,  when  the  young  deputy  told 
him,  apropos  of  the  wealth  of  our  soil,  a  sort  of 
Arabian-Nights  tale,  which,  if  science  would  only  take 
hold  of  it,  might  become  a  reality. 

'•'  But,  monsieur,  do  you  really  believe,"  cried 
Monsieur  de  Camps,  "that,  besides  our  coal  and  iron 
mines,  we  possess  mines  of  copper,  lead,  and,  possibly, 
silver?" 

"If  you  will  take  the  trouble  to  consult  certain 
specialists,"  replied  Sallenauve,  "  3^ou  will  find  that 
neither  the  boasted  strata  of  Bohemia  and  Saxony  nor 
even  those  of  Russia  and  Hungary  can  be  compared  to 
those  hidden  in  the  Pyrenees,  in  the  Alps  from  Brian- 
9on  to  the  I  sere,  in  the  Cevennes  on  the  Lozere  side, 


The  Deputy^  of  Arcis.  359 

in  the  Piiy-de-D6ine,  Bretagne,  and  the  Vosges.  In 
the  Vosges,  more  especially  about  the  town  of  Saint- 
Die,  I  can  point  out  to  you  a  single  vein  of  the  mineral 
of  silver  which  lies  to  the  depth  of  fifty  to  eighty 
metres  with  a  length  of  thirteen  kilometres." 

*'But,  monsieur,  why  has  such  untold  metallurgical 
wealth  never  been  worked  ?  " 

*'It  has  been,  in  former  days,"  replied  Sallenauve, 
"  especially  during  the  Roman  occupation  of  Gaul. 
After  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  the  work  was 
abandoned  ;  but  the  lords  of  the  soil  and  the  clergy 
renewed  it  in  the  middle  ages ;  after  that,  during  the 
struggle  of  feudality  against  the  royal  power  and  the 
long  civil  wars  which  devastated  France,  the  work  was 
again  suspended,  and  has  never  since  been  taken  up." 

''Are  you  sure  of  what  you  say?  " 

"  Ancient  authors,  Strabo  and  others,  all  mention 
these  mines,  and  the  tradition  of  their  existence  still 
lingers  in  the  regions  where  they  are  situated ;  decrees 
of  emperors  and  the  ordinances  of  certain  of  our  kings 
bear  testimony  to  the  value  of  their  products ;  in  cer- 
tain places  more  material  proof  may  be  found  in  ex- 
cavations of  considerable  depth  and  length,  in  galleries 
and  halls  cut  in  the  solid  rock,  —  in  short,  in  the  many 
traces  still  existing  of  those  vast  works  which  have 
immortalized  Roman  industry.  To  this  must  be  added 
that  the  modern  study  of  geological  science  has  con- 
firmed and  developed  these  irrefutable  indications." 

The  imagination  of  Monsieur  Octave  de  Camps, 
hitherto  limited  to  the  development  of  a  single  iron- 
mine,  took  fire,  and  he  was  about  to  ask  his  instructor 
to  give  him  his  ideas  on  the  manner  of  awakening  a 


360  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

practical  interest  in  the  matter,  when  Lucas,  throwing 
wide  open  the  double  doors  of  the  salon,  announced  in 
his  loudest  and  most  pompous  voice,  — 

"  Monsieur  the  minister  of  Public  Works." 

The  effect  produced  on  the  elders  of  the  assembly 
was  electric. 

* '  I  want  to  see  what  sort  of  figure  that  little  Ras- 
tignac  cuts  as  a  statesman,"  said  Monsieur  de  Camps, 
rising  from  his  seat ;  but  in  his  heart  he  was  thinking  of 
the  government  subsidy  he  wanted  for  his  iron-mine. 
The  new  deputy,  on  his  side,  foresaw  an  inevitable 
meeting  with  the  minister,  and  wondered  what  his 
friends  in  the  Opposition  would  say  when  they  read  in 
the  ' '  National  "  that  a  representative  of  the  Left  was 
seen  to  have  an  interview  with  a  minister  celebrated  for 
his  art  in  converting  political  opponents.  Anxious 
also  to  return  to  Marie-Gaston,  he  resolved  to  profit 
by  the  general  stir  created  by  the  minister's  arrival 
to  slip  away ;  and  by  a  masterly  manoeuvre  he  made 
his  way  slyly  to  the  door  of  the  salon,  expecting  to 
escape  without  being  seen.  But  he  reckoned  without 
Nais,  to  whom  he  was  engaged  for  a  quadrille.  That 
small  girl  sounded  the  alarm  at  the  moment  when  he 
laid  his  hand  on  the  handle  of  the  door ;  and  Monsieur 
de  I'Estorade,  mindful  of  his  promise  to  Rastignac, 
hastened  to  put  a  stop  to  the  desertion.  Finding  his 
quiet  retreat  impossible,  Sallenauve  was  afraid  that  an 
open  departure  after  the  arrival  of  the  minister  might 
be  construed  as  an  act  of  puritanical  opposition  in 
the  worst  taste ;  he  therefore  accepted  the  situation 
promptly,  and  decided  to  remain. 

Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  knew  that  Sallenauve  was 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  361 

far  too  wise  to  be  the  dupe  of  any  artifices  he  might 
have  used  to  bring  about  his  introduction  to  the  min- 
ister. He  therefore  went  straight  to  the  point,  and 
soon  after  Rastignac's  arrival  he  slipped  his  arm  through 
that  of  the  statesman,  and,  approaching  the  deputy, 
said  to  him,  — 

''  Monsieur  the  minister  of  Public  Works,  who,  on 
the  eve  of  the  battle,  wishes  me  to  introduce  him  to  a 
general  of  the  enemy's  army." 

"  Monsieur  le  ministre  does  rae  too  much  honor," 
replied  Sallenauve,  ceremoniously.  'Tar  from  being 
a  general,  I  am  a  private  soldier,  and  a  very  unknown 
one." 

*'  Hum!  "  said  the  minister;  "it  seems  to  me  that 
the  battle  at  Arcis-sur-Aube  was  not  an  insignificant 
victory ;  you  routed  our  ranks,  monsieur,  in  a  singular 
manner." 

'*  There  was  nothing  wonderful  in  that ;  you  must 
have  heard  that  a  saint  fought  for  us." 

''  Well,  at  any  rate,"  said  Rastignac,  ''  I  prefer  this 
result  to  the  one  arranged  for  us  by  a  man  I  thought 
cleverer  than  he  proved  to  be,  whom  I  sent  down  there. 
It  seems  that  Beauvisage  is  a  perfect  nonentity  ;  he  'd 
have  rubbed  off  upon  us ;  and  after  all,  he  was  really  as 
much  Left  centre  as  the  other  man,  Giguet.  Now  the 
Left  centre  is  our  real  enemy,  because  it  is  aiming  to 
get  our  portfolios." 

*'  Oh  !  "  said  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  ''  after  what  we 
heard  of  the  man,  I  think  he  would  have  done  exactly 
what  was  wanted  of  him." 

*'  My  dear  friend,  don't  believe  that,"  said  the  min- 
ister.    ''  Fools  are  often  more  tenacious  of  the  flag 


362  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

under  which  they  enlisted  than  we  think  for.  Besides, 
to  go  over  to  the  enemy  is  to  make  a  choice,  and  that 
supposes  an  operation  of  the  mind  ;  it  is  much  easier 
to  be  obstinate." 

''I  agree  with  the  minister,"  said  Sallenauve;  "  ex- 
treme innocence  and  extreme  rascality  are  equally  able 
to  defend  themselves  against  seduction." 

Here  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  seeing,  or  pretending 
to  see,  a  signal  made  to  him,  looked  over  his  shoulder 
and  said,  — 

"  I  'm  coming." 

And  the  two  adversaries  being  thus  buckled  together, 
he  hastened  away  as  if  summoned  to  some  duty  as 
master  of  the  house. 

Sallenauve  was  anxious  not  to  seem  disturbed  at 
finding  himself  alone  with  the  minister.  The  meeting 
having  come  about,  he  decided  to  endure  it  with  a  good 
grace,  and,  taking  the  first  word,  he  asked  if  the  ministry 
had  prepared,  in  view  of  the  coming  sessions,  a  large 
number  of  bills. 

''No,  very  few,"  replied  Kastignac.  "To  tell  the 
truth,  we  do  not  expect  to  be  in  power  very  long ;  we 
brought  about  an  election  because  in  the  general  con- 
fusion into  which  the  press  has  thrown  public  opinion, 
our  constitutional  duty  was  to  force  that  opinion  to  re- 
constitute itself ;  but  the  fact  is,  we  did  not  expect  the 
result  would  be  favorable  to  us,  and  we  are  therefore 
taken  somewhat  unawares." 

''You  are  like  the  peasant,"  said  Sallenauve,  laugh- 
ing, ''  who,  expecting  the  end  of  the  world,  did  not 
sow  his  wheat." 

''Well,  we  don't  look  upon   our  retirement  as  the 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  363 

end  of  the  world,"  said  Rastignac,  modestly;  *' there 
are  men  to  come  after  us,  and  many  of  them  well  able 
to  govern  ;  only,  as  we  expected  to  give  but  few  more 
representations  in  that  transitory  abode  called  '  power,' 
we  have  not  unpacked  either  our  costumes  or  our 
scenery.  Besides,  the  coming  session,  in  any  case, 
can  only  be  a  business  session.  The  question  now  is, 
of  course,  between  the  palace,  that  is,  personal  in- 
fluence, and  the  doctrine  of  parliamentary  supremacy. 
This  question  will  naturally  come  up  when  the  vote 
is  taken  on  the  secret-service  fund.  Whenever,  in  one 
way  or  the  other,  that  is  settled,  and  the  budget 
is  voted,  together  with  a  few  bills  of  secondary  inter- 
est. Parliament  has  really  completed  its  task;  it  will 
have  put  an  end  to  a  distressing  struggle,  and  the 
country  will  know  to  which  of  the  two  parties  it  can 
look  for  the  development  of  its  prosperity." 

*'  And  you  think,"  said  Sallenauve,  "  that  in  a  well- 
balanced  system  of  government  that  question  is  a  use- 
ful one  to  raise  ?  " 

''Well,"  replied  Rastignac,  ''  we  have  not  raised  it. 
It  is  born  perhaps  of  circumstances ;  a  great  deal,  as  I 
think,  from  the  restlessness  of  certain  ambitions,  and 
also  from  the  tactics  of  parties." 

*'  So  that,  in  your  opinion,  one  of  the  combatants  is 
not  guilty  and  has  absolutely  nothing  to  reproach  him- 
self with?" 

'*You  are  a  republican,"  said  Rastignac,  ''and 
therefore,  a  priori^  an  enemy  to  the  dynasty.  I  think 
I  should  lose  my  time  in  trying  to  change  your  ideas 
on  the  policy  you  complain  of." 

"  You  are  mistaken,"  said  the  theoretical  republican 


364  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

deputy  ;  "  I  have  no  preconceived  hatred  to  the  reign- 
ing dynasty.  I  even  think  that  in  its  past,  striped^  if 
I  may  say  so,  with  royal  affinities  and  revolutionary 
memories,  it  has  all  that  is  needed  to  respond  to  the 
liberal  and  monarchical  instincts  of  the  nation.  But 
you  will  find  it  difficult  to  persuade  me  that  in  the 
present  head  of  the  dynasty  we  shall  not  find  extreme 
ideas  of  personal  influence,  which  in  the  long  run 
will  undermine  and  subvert  the  finest  as  well  as  the 
strongest  institutions." 

''Yes,"  said  Kastignac,  ironically,  ''and  they  are 
saved  by  the  famous  axiom  of  the  deputy  of  Sancerre : 
'  The  king  reigns,  but  does  not  govern.'  " 

Whether  he  was  tired  of  standing  to  converse,  or 
whether  he  wished  to  prove  his  ease  in  releasing  him- 
self from  the  trap  which  had  evidently  been  laid  for 
him,  Sallenauve,  before  replying,  drew  up  a  chair  for 
his  interlocutor,  and,  taking  one  himself,  said,  — 

"  Will  you  permit  me  to  cite  the  example  of  another 
royal  behavior  ?  —  that  of  a  prince  who  was  not  con- 
sidered indifferent  to  his  royal  prerogative,  and  who 
was  not  ignorant  of  constitutional  mechanism  —  " 

"  Louis  XVIIL,"  said  Rastignac,  "or,  as  the  news- 
papers used  to  call  him,  '  the  illustrious  author  of  the 
Charter'?" 

"  Precisely ;  and  will  you  kindly  tell  me  where  he 
died?" 

"  JParbleu!  at  the  Tuileries." 

"  And  his  successor? " 

"  In  exile  —    Oh !  I  see  what  you  are  coming  to." 

"  My  conclusion  is  certainly  not  difficult  to  guess. 
But  have   you   fully   remarked   the   deduction   to   be 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  365 

drawn  from  that  royal  career?  —  for  which  I  myself 
feel  the  greatest  respect.  Louis  XVIII.  was  not  a 
citizen  king.  He  granted  his  Charter,  but  he  never 
consented  to  it.  Born  nearer  to  the  throne  than  the 
prince  whose  regrettable  tendencies  I  mentioned  just 
now,  he  might  naturally  share  more  deeply  still  the 
ideas,  the  prejudices,  and  the  infatuations  of  the  court ; 
in  person  he  w^as  ridiculous  (a  serious  princely  defect 
in  France)  ;  he  bore  the  brunt  of  a  new  and  untried 
regime;  he  succeeded  a  government  which  had  in- 
toxicated the  people  with  that  splendid  gilded  smoke 
called  glory ;  and  if  he  was  not  actually  brought  back 
to  France  by  foreigners,  at  any  rate  he  came  as  the 
result  of  the  armed  invasion  of  Europe.  Now,  shall  I 
tell  you  why,  in  spite  of  all  these  defects  and  disadvan- 
tages, in  spite,  too,  of  the  ceaseless  conspiracy  kept  up 
against  his  government,  it  was  given  to  him  to  die 
tranquilly  in  his  bed  at  the  Tuileries?  " 

''  Because  he  had  made  himself  a  constitutional  king,'' 
said  Rastignac,  with  a  slight  shrug  of  his  shoulders. 
'*  But  do  you  mean  to  say  that  we  are  not  that?  " 

*'  In  the  letter,  yes;  in  the  spirit,  no.  When  Louis 
XVIII.  gave  his  confidence  to  a  minister,  he  gave  it 
sincerely  and  wholly.  He  did  not  cheat  him ;  he 
played  honestly  into  his  hand,  —  witness  the  famous 
ordinance  of  September  5,  and  the  dissolution  of  the 
Chamber,  which  was  more  Royalist  than  himself,  —  a 
thing  he  had  the  wisdom  not  to  desire.  Later,  a  move- 
ment of  public  opinion  shook  the  minister  who  had  led 
him  along  that  path ;  that  minister  was  his  favorite, 
his  son,  as  he  called  him.  No  matter;  yielding  to  the 
constitutional  necessity,  he  bravely  sent  him  to  foreign 


366  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

parts,  after  loading  him  with  crosses  and  titles,  —  in 
short,  with  everything  that  could  soften  the  pain  of  his 
fall;  and  he  did  not  watch  and  manoeuvre  surrepti- 
tiously to  bring  him  back  to  power,  which  that  minister 
never  regained." 

''  For  a  man  who  declares  he  does  not  hate  us,"  said 
Rastignac,  ''you  treat  us  rather  roughly.  According 
to  you  we  are  almost  faithless  to  the  constitutional 
compact,  and  our  policy,  to  your  thinking  ambiguous 
and  tortuous,  gives  us  a  certain  distant  likeness  to 
Monsieur  Doublemain  in  the  '  Mariage  de  Figaro.'  " 

"  I  do  not  say  that  the  evil  is  as  deep  as  that,"  re- 
plied Sallenauve ;  ''  perhaps,  after  all,  we  are  simply  a 
faiseu?', — using  the  word,  be  it  understood,  in  the 
sense  of  a  meddler,  one  who  wants  to  have  his  finger 
in  everything." 

'*  Ah !  monsieur,  but  suppose  we  are  the  ablest 
politician  in  the  country." 

''If  we  are,  it  does  not  follow  that  our  kingdom 
ought  not  to  have  the  chance  of  becoming  as  able  as 
ourselves." 

"Par6Zei*/"  cried  Rastignac,  in  the  tone  of  a  man 
who  comes  to  the  climax  of  a  conversation,  "  I  wish  I 
had  power  to  realize  a  wish  —  " 

"  And  that  is?" 

"  To  see  you  grappling  with  that  ability  which  you 
call  meddlesome." 

"  Well,  you  know.  Monsieur  le  ministre,  that  we 
all  spend  three  fourths  of  life  in  wishing  for  the 
impossible." 

"  Why  impossible?  Would  you  be  the  first  man  of 
the  Opposition  to  be  seen  at  the  Tuileries?     An  invi- 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  367 

tation  to  dinner  given  publicly,  openly,  which  would, 
by  bringing  you  into  contact  with  one  whom  you  mis- 
judge at  a  distance  —  " 

''  I  should  have  the  honor  to  refuse." 

And  he  emphasized  the  words  have  the  honor  in  a 
way  to  show  the  meaning  he  attached  to  them. 

''You  are  all  alike,  you  men  of  the  Opposition!" 
cried  the  minister ;  ' '  you  won't  let  yourselves  be 
enlightened  when  the  opportunity  presents  itself ;  or, 
to  put  it  better,  you  —  " 

''  Do  you  call  the  rays  from  those  gigantic  red  bottles 
in  a  chemist's  shop  lights  when  they  flash  into  your  eyes 
as  you  pass  them  after  dark  ?  Don't  they,  on  the  con- 
trary, seem  to  blind  you  ?  " 

"  It  is  not  our  rays  that  frighten  you,"  said  Rasti- 
gnac ;  '*  it  is  the  dark  lantern  of  your  party  watchmen 
on  their  rounds." 

"  There  may  be  some  truth  in  what  you  say ;  a  party 
and  the  man  who  undertakes  to  represent  it  are  in  some 
degree  a  married  couple,  who  in  order  to  live  peaceably 
together  must  be  mutually  courteous,  frank,  and  faith- 
ful in  heart  as  well  as  in  principle." 

"  Well,  try  to  be  moderate.  Your  dream  is  far  more 
impossible  to  realize  than  mine ;  the  day  will  come 
when  you  will  have  more  to  say  about  the  courtesy  of 
your  chaste  better  half." 

''  If  there  is  an  evil  for  which  I  ought  to  be  prepared, 
it  is  that." 

''Do  you  think  so?  With  the  lofty  and  generous 
sentiments  so  apparent  in  your  nature,  shall  you  remain 
impassive  under  political  attack,  —  under  calumny,  for 
instance?  '* 


368  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

"  You  yourself,  Monsieur  le  ministre,  have  not 
escaped  its  venom ;  but  it  did  not,  I  think,  deter  you 
from  your  course." 

"'  But,"  said  Rastignac,  lowering  his  voice,  '^suppose 
I  were  to  tell  you  that  I  have  already  sternly  refused 
to  listen  to  a  proposal  to  search  into  your  private  life 
on  a  certain  side  which,  being  more  in  the  shade  than 
the  rest,  seems  to  offer  your  enemies  a  chance  to  entrap 

you." 

"  I  do  not  thank  you  for  the  honor  you  have  done 
yourself  in  rejecting  with  contempt  the  proposals  of 
men  who  can  be  neither  of  my  party  nor  of  yours  ;  they 
belong  to  the  party  of  base  appetites  and  selfish  pas- 
sions. But,  supposing  the  impossible,  had  they  found 
some  acceptance  from  you,  pray  believe  that  my  course, 
which  follows  the  dictates  of  my  conscience,  could  not 
be  affected  thereby." 

"  But  your  party,  — consider  for  a  moment  its  ele- 
ments :  a  jumble  of  foiled  ambitions,  brutal  greed, 
plagiarists  of  '93,  despots  disguising  themselves  as 
lovers  of  liberty." 

''  My  party  has  nothing,  and  seeks  to  gain  something. 
Yours  calls  itself  conservative,  and  it  is  right ;  its  chief 
concern  is  how  to  preserve  its  power,  offices,  and 
wealth, — in  short,  all  it  now  monopolizes." 

''  But,  monsieur,  we  are  not  a  closed  way;  we  open 
our  way,  on  the  contrary,  to  all  ambitions.  But  the 
higher  you  are  in  character  and  intellect,  the  less  we 
can  allow  you  to  pass,  dragging  after  you  your  train 
of  democrats ;  for  the  day  when  that  crew  gains  the 
upper  hand  it  will  not  be  a  change  of  policy,  but  a 
revolution." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  369 

''But  what  makes  you  think  I  want  an  opening  of 
any  kind?  " 

''  What !  follow  a  course  without  an  aim  ?  —  a  course 
that  leads  nowhere?  A  certain  development  of  a  man's 
faculties  not  only  gives  him  the  right  but  makes  it  his 
duty  to  seek  to  govern." 

"  To  watch  the  governing  power  is  a  useful  career, 
and,  I  may  add,  a  very  busy  one." 

"You  can  fancy,  monsieur,"  said  Rastignac,  good- 
humoredly,  "  that  if  Beau  visage  were  in  your  place  I 
sliould  not  have  taken  the  trouble  to  argue  with  him ; 
I  may  say,  however,  that  he  would  have  made  my  effort 
less  difficult." 

''  This  meeting,  which  chance  has  brought  about 
between  us,"  said  Sallenauve,  '' will  have  one  beneficial 
result;  we  understand  each  other  henceforth,  and  our 
future  meetings  will  always  therefore  be  courteous  — 
which  will  not  lessen  the  strength  of  our  convictions." 

''  Then  I  must  say  to  the  king  —  for  I  had  his  royal 
commands  to  —  " 

Rastignac  did  not  end  the  sentence  in  which  he  was, 
so  to  speak,  firing  his  last  gun,  for  the  orchestra  began 
to  play  a  quadrille,  and  Nais,  running  up,  made  him  a 
coquettish  courtesy,  saying,  — 

*' Monsieur  le  ministre,  I  am  very  sorry,  but  you 
have  taken  my  partner,  and  you  must  give  him  up.  He 
is  down  for  my  eleventh  quadrille,  and  if  1  miss  it  my 
list  gets  into  terrible  confusion." 

''You  permit  me,  monsieur?"  said  Sallenauve, 
laughing.  "As  you  see,  I  am  not  a  very  savage 
republican."  So  saying,  he  followed  Nais,  who  led 
him  along  by  the  hand. 

24 


370  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

Madame  de  I'Estorade,  comprehending  that  this 
fancy  of  NaTs  was  rather  compromising  to  the  dignity 
of  the  new  deputy,  had  arranged  that  several  papas  and 
mammas  should  figure  in  the  same  quadrille ;  and  she 
herself  with  the  Scotch  lad  danced  vis-h-vis  to  her 
daughter,  who  beamed  with  pride  and  joy.  In  the 
evolutions  of  the  last  figure,  where  Nais  had  to  take  her 
mother's  hand,  she   said,  pressing  it  passionately,  — 

"  Poor  mamma !  if  it  had  n't  been  for  liim^  you 
would  n't  have  me  now." 

This  sudden  reminder  so  agitated  Madame  de 
I'Estorade,  coming  as  it  did  unexpectedly,  that  she  was 
seized  with  a  return  of  the  nervous  trembling  her 
daughter's  danger  had  originally  caused,  and  was 
forced  to  sit  down.  Seeing  her  change  color,  Sallenauve, 
Nais,  and  Madame  Octave  de  Camps  ran  to  her  to 
know  if  she  were  ill. 

"It  is  nothing,"  she  answered,  addressing  Salle- 
nauve ;  "  only  that  my  little  girl  reminded  me  sud- 
denly of  the  immense  obligation  we  are  under  to  you, 
monsieur.  '  Without  Aim,'  she  said,  '  you  would  not 
have  me.'  Ah!  monsieur,  without  your  generous 
courage  where  would  my  child  be  now  ?  " 

''  Come,  come,  don't  excite  yourself,"  interposed 
Madame  Octave  de  Camps,  observing  the  convulsive 
and  almost  gasping  tone  of  her  friend's  voice.  "It  is 
not  reasonable  to  put  yourself  in  such  a  state  for  a 
child's  speech." 

"  She  is  better  than  the  rest  of  us,"  replied  Madame 
de  I'Estorade,  taking  Nais  in  her  arms. 

"  Come,  mamma,  be  reasonable,"  said  that  young 
lady. 


The  Deputy  of  Arch.  371 

"  She  puts  nothing  in  the  world,"  continued  Madame 
de  I'Estorade,  "before  her  gratitude  to  her  preserver; 
whereas  her  father  and  I  have  scarcely  shown  him  any." 

"But,  madame,"  said  Sallenauve,  "you  have 
courteously  —  " 

"Courteously!"  interrupted  Nais,  shaking  her 
pretty  head  with  an  air  of  disapproval;  "if  any  one 
had  saved  my  daughter,  I  should  be  different  to  him 
from  that." 

"  NaTs,"  said  Madame  de  Camps,  sternly,  "  children 
should  be  silent  when  their  opinion  is  not  asked." 

"  What  is  the  matter?  "  said  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade, 
joining  the  group. 

"  Nothing,"  said  Madame  de  Camps;  "only  a  gid- 
diness Renee  had  in  dancing." 

"Is  it  over?" 

"  Yes,  I  am  quite  well  again,"  said  Madame  de 
I'Estorade. 

"Then  come  and  say  good-night  to  Madame  de 
Rastignac,  who  is  preparing  to  take  leave." 

In  his  eagerness  to  get  to  the  minister's  wife,  he  for- 
got to  give  his  own  wife  his  arm.  Sallenauve  was 
more  thoughtful.  As  they  walked  together  in  the 
wake  of  her  husband,  Madame  de  I'Estorade  said,  — 

"  I  saw  you  talking  for  a  long  time  with  Monsieur 
de  Rastignac;  did  he  practise  his  well-known  seduc- 
tions upon  you  ? " 

"  Do  you  think  he  succeeded?"  replied  Sallenauve. 

"  No  ;  but  such  attempts  to  capture  are  always  dis- 
agreeable, and  I  beg  you  to  believd  that  I  was  not  a 
party  to  tlie  plot.  I  am  not  so  violently  ministerial  as 
my  husband." 


372  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

"  Nor  I  as  violently  revolutionary  as  they  think." 

"  I  trust  that  these  annoying  politics,  which  have 
already  produced  a  jar  between  you  and  Monsieur  de 
I'Estorade,  may  not  disgust  you  with  the  idea  of  being 
counted  among  our  friends." 

''That  is  an  honor,  madame,  for  which  I  can  only 
be  grateful." 

"  It  is  not  an  honor  but  a  pleasure  that  I  hoped  you 
would  find  in  it,"  said  Madame  de  I'Estorade,  quickly. 
"  I  say,  with  Nais,  if  I  had  saved  the  life  of  a  friend's 
child,  I  should  cease  to  be  ceremonious  with  her." 

So  saying,  and  without  listening  to  his  answer,  she 
disengaged  her  arm  quickly  from  that  of  Sallenauve, 
and  left  him  rather  astonished  at  the  tone  in  which  she 
had  spoken. 

In  seeing  Madame  de  I'Estorade  so  completely  docile 
to  the  advice,  more  clever  than  prudent  perhaps,  of 
Madame  de  Camps,  the  reader,  we  think,  can  scarcely 
be  surprised.  A  certain  attraction  has  been  evident 
for  some  time  on  the  part  of  the  frigid  countess  not 
only  to  the  preserver  of  her  daughter,  but  to  the 
man  who  under  such  romantic  and  singular  circum- 
stances had  come  before  her  mind.  Carefully  con- 
sidered, Madame  de  I'Estorade  is  seen  to  be  far  from 
one  of  those  impassible  natures  which  resist  all  affec- 
tionate emotions  except  those  of  the  family.  With  a 
beauty  that  was  partly  Spanish,  she  had  eyes  which 
her  friend  Louise  de  Chaulieu  declared  could  ripen 
peaches.  Her  coldness  w^as  not  what  physicians  call 
congenital;  her  temperament  was  an  acquired  one. 
Marrying  from  reason  a  man  whose  mental  insuf- 
ficiency is  very  apparent,  she  made  herself  love  him 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  373 

out  of  pity  and  a  sense  of  protection.  Up  to  the 
present  time,  by  means  of  a  certain  atrophy  of  heart, 
she  had  succeeded,  without  one  failure,  in  making 
Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  perfectly  happy.  AVith  the 
same  instinct,  she  had  exaggerated  the  maternal  senti- 
ment to  an  almost  inconceivable  degree,  until  in  that 
way  she  had  fairly  stifled  all  the  other  cravings  of 
her  nature.  It  must  be  said,  however,  that  the  success 
she  had  had  in  accomplishing  this  hard  task  was  due 
in  a  great  measure  to  the  circumstance  of  Louise  de 
Chaulieu.  To  her  that  dear  mistaken  one  was  like  the 
drunken  slave  whom  the  Spartans  made  a  living  lesson 
to  their  children ;  and  between  the  two  friends  a  sort 
of  tacit  wager  was  established.  Louise  having  taken 
the  side  of  romantic  passion,  Renee  held  firmly  to  that 
of  superior  reason  ;  and  in  order  to  win  the  game,  she 
had  maintained  a  courage  of  good  sense  and  wisdom 
which  might  have  cost  her  far  more  to  practise  with- 
out this  incentive.  At  the  age  she  had  now  reached, 
and  with  her  long  habit  of  self-control,  we  can  under- 
stand how,  seeing,  as  she  believed,  the  approach  of  a 
love  against  which  she  had  preached  so  vehemently, 
she  should  instantly  set  to  work  to  rebuff  it;  but  a 
man  who  did  not  feel  that  love,  while  thinking  her 
ideally  beautiful,  and  who  possibly  loved  elsewhere,  — 
a  man  who  had  saved  her  child  from  death  and  asked 
no  recompense,  who  was  grave,  serious,  and  pre- 
occupied in  an  absorbing  enterprise,  — why  should  she 
still  continue  to  think  such  a  man  dangerous?  Why 
not  grant  to  him,  without  further  hesitation,  the  luke- 
warm sentiment  of  friendship? 


374  The  Deputy  of  Arci%. 


VI. 

CURIOSITY  THAT  CAME  WITHIN  AN  ACE   OF  BEING   FATAL. 

On  returning  to  Ville  d'Avray,  Sallenauve  was  con- 
fronted by  a  singular  event.  Who  does  not  know  how 
sudden  events  upset  the  whole  course  of  our  lives,  and 
place  us,  without  our  will,  in  compromising  positions? 

Sallenauve  was  not  mistaken  in  feeling  serious  anx- 
iety as  to  the  mental  state  of  his  friend  Marie-Gaston. 

When  that  unfortunate  man  had  left  the  scene  of  his 
cruel  loss  immediately  after  the  death  of  his  wife,  he 
would  have  done  a  wiser  thing  had  he  then  resolved 
never  to  revisit  it.  Nature,  providentially  ordered, 
provides  that  if  those  whose  nearest  and  dearest  are 
struck  by  the  hand  of  death  accept  the  decree  with  the 
resignation  which  ought  to  follow  the  execution  of  all 
necessary  law,  they  will  not  remain  too  long  under  the 
influence  of  their  grief.  Eousseau  has  said,  in  his 
famous  letter  against  suicide  :  "  Sadness,  weariness  of 
spirit,  regret,  despair  are  not  lasting  sorrows,  rooted 
forever  in  the  soul ;  experience  will  always  cast  out 
that  feeling  of  bitterness  which  makes  us  at  first  believe 
our  grief  eternal." 

But  this  truth  ceases  to  be  true  for  imprudent  and 
wilful  persons,  who  seek  to  escape  the  first  anguish  of 
sorrow  by  flight  or  some  violent  distraction.  All 
mental  and  moral  suffering  is  a  species  of  illness  which, 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  375 

taking  time  for  its  specific,  will  gradually  wear  out,  in 
the  long  run,  of  itself.  If,  on  ilie  contrary,  it  is  not 
allowed  to  consume  itself  slowly  on  the  scene  of  its 
trouble,  if  it  is  fanned  into  flame  by  motion  or  violent 
remedies,  we  hinder  the  action  of  nature;  we  deprive 
ourselves  of  the  blessed  relief  of  comparative  forgetful- 
ness,  promised  to  those  who  will  accept  their  suffering, 
and  so  transform  it  into  a  chronic  affection,  the  memo- 
ries of  which,  though  hidden,  are  none  the  less  true 
and  deep. 

If  we  violently  oppose  this  salutary  process,  we  pro- 
duce an  acute  evil,  in  which  the  imagination  acts  upon 
the  heart ;  and  as  the  latter  from  its  nature  is  limited, 
while  the  former  is  infinite,  it  is  impossible  to  calculate 
the  violence  of  the  impressions  to  which  a  man  may 
yield  himself. 

When  Marie-Gaston  returned  to  the  house  at  Ville 
d'Avray,  after  two  years'  absence,  he  fancied  that  only 
a  tender  if  melancholy  memory  awaited  him  ;  but  not 
a  step  could  he  make  without  recalling  his  lost  joys 
and  the  agony  of  losing  them.  The  flowers  that  his 
wife  had  loved,  the  lawns,  the  trees  just  budding  into 
greenness  under  the  warm  breath  of  Ma}',  —  they  were 
here  before  his  eyes;  but  she  who  had  created  this 
beauteous  nature  was  lying  cold  in  the  earth.  Amid 
all  the  charms  and  elegances  gathered  to  adorn  this 
nest  of  their  love,  there  was  nothing  for  the  man  who 
rashly  returned  to  that  dangerous  atmosphere  but 
sounds  of  lamentation,  the  moans  of  a  renewed  and 
now  ever-living  grief.  Alarmed  himself  at  the  vertigo 
of  sorrow  which  seized  him,  Marie-Gaston  shrank,  as 
Sallenauve  had  said,  from  taking  the  last  step  in  his 


376  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

ordeal ;  be  had  calmly  discussed  with  his  friend  the  de- 
tails of  the  mausoleum  he  wished  to  raise  above  the 
mortal  remains  of  his  beloved  Louise,  but  he  had  not 
yet  brought  himself  to  visit  her  grave  in  the  village 
cemetery  where  he  had  laid  them.  There  was  every- 
thing, therefore,  to  fear  from  a  grief  which  time  had 
not  only  not  assuaged,  but,  on  the  contrary,  had  in- 
creased by  duration,  until  it  was  sharper  and  more 
intolerable  than  before. 

The  gates  were  opened  by  Philippe,  the  old  servant, 
who  had  been  constituted  by  Madame  Gaston  major- 
domo  of  the  establishment. 

"How  is  your  master?"  asked  Sallenauve. 

*'  He  has  gone  away,  monsieur,"  replied  Pliilippe. 

"  Gone  away!  " 

"  Yes,  monsieur ;  with  that  English  gentleman  whom 
monsieur  left  here  with  him." 

''But  without  a  word  to  me!  Do  you  know  where 
they  have  gone  ?  " 

"  After  dinner,  wliich  went  off  very  well,  monsieur 
suddenly  gave  orders  to  pack  his  travelling-trunk ;  he 
did  part  of  it  himself.  During  that  time  the  English- 
man, who  said  he  would  go  into  the  park  and  smoke, 
asked  me  privately  where  he  could  go  to  write  a  letter 
without  monsieur  seeing  him.  I  took  him  to  my  room  ; 
but  I  did  not  dare  question  him  about  this  journey,  for 
I  never  saw  any  one  with  such  forbidding  and  uncom- 
municative manners.  By  the  time  the  letter  was  written 
monsieur  was  ready,  and  without  giving  me  any  ex- 
planation they  both  got  into  the  Englishman's  car- 
riage, and  I  heard  one  of  them  say  to  the  coachman, 
'Paris.'" 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  377 

"  What  became  of  the  letter?"  asked  Sallenauve. 

''  It  is  there  in  my  room,  where  the  Englishman  gave 
it  me  secretly.     It  is  addressed  to  monsieur." 

"  Fetch  it  at  once,  my  dear  man,"  cried  Sallenauve. 

After  reading  the  letter,  his  face  seemed  to  Philippe 
convulsed. 

'*  Tell  them  not  to  unharness,"  he  said  ;  and  he  read 
the  letter  through  a  second  time. 

When  the  old  servant  returned  after  executing  the 
order,  Sallenauve  asked  him  at  what  hour  they  had 
started. 

"  About  nine,"  answered  Philippe. 

"Three  hours  in  advance!"  muttered  the  deputy, 
looking  at  his  watch,  and  returning  to  the  carriage 
which  had  brought  him.  As  he  was  getting  into  it, 
the  old  majordomo  forced  himself  to  say,  — 

"  Monsieur  found  no  bad  news  in  that  letter,  did 
he?" 

''  No ;  but  your  master  may  be  absent  for  some  time  ; 
keep  the  house  in  good  order."  Then  he  said  to  the 
coachman,  "  Paris! " 

The  next  day,  quite  early  in  the  morning,  Monsieur 
de  I'Estorade  was  in  his  study,  employed  in  a  rather 
singular  manner.  It  will  be  remembered  that  on  the 
day  when  Sallenauve,  then  Dorlange  the  sculptor,  had 
sent  him  the  bust  of  Madame  de  I'Estorade,  he  had 
not  found  a  place  where,  as  he  thought,  the  little 
masterpiece  had  a  proper  light.  From  the  moment 
that  Rastignac  hinted  to  him  that  his  intercourse  with 
the  sculptor,  now  deputy,  might  injure  him  at  court, 
he  had  agreed  with  his  son  Armand  that  the  artist  had 
given  to  Madame  de  I'Estorade  the  air  of  a  grisette ; 


378  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

but  now  that  S alien auve,  by  bis  resistance  to  ministe- 
rial blandishments,  had  taken  an  openly  hostile  attitude 
to  the  government,  that  bust  seemed  to  the  peer  of 
France  no  longer  worthy  of  exhibition,  and  the  worthy 
man  was  now  engaged  in  finding  some  dark  corner 
where,  without  recourse  to  the  absurdity  of  actually 
hiding  it,  it  would  be  out  of  range  of  the  eyes  of  vis- 
itors, whose  questions  as  to  its  maker  he  should  no 
longer  be  forced  to  answer.  He  was  therefore  perched 
on  the  highest  step  of  his  library  ladder,  holding  in  his 
hands  the  gift  of  the  sculptor,  and  preparing  to  relegate 
it  to  the  top  of  a  bookcase,  where  it  was  destined  to 
keep  company  with  an  owl  and  a  cormorant  shot  by 
Armand  during  the  recent  holidays  and  stuffed  by 
paternal  pride,  when  the  door  of  the  study  opened  and 
Lucas  announced,  — 

'' Monsieur  Philippe." 

The  age  of  the  old  majordomo  and  the  confidential 
post  he  occupied  in  Marie-Gaston's  establishment 
seemed  to  the  factotum  of  the  house  of  I'Estorade  to 
authorize  the  designation  of  "monsieur,"  —  a  civility 
expectant  of  return,  be  it  understood. 

Descending  from  his  eminence,  the  peer  of  France 
asked  Philippe  what  brought  him,  and  whether  any- 
thing had  happened  at  Ville  d'Avray.  The  old  servant 
related  the  singular  departure  of  his  master,  and  the 
no  less  singular  departure  of  Sallenauve  without  a  word 
of  explanation  ;  then  he  added,  — 

"This  morning,  while  putting  monsieur's  room  in 
order,  "a  letter  addressed  to  Madame  la  comtesse  fell 
out  of  a  book.  As  the  letter  was  sealed  and  all  ready 
to  be  sent,  I  supposed  that  monsieur,  in  the  hurry  of 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  379 

departure,  had  forgotten  to  tell  me  to  put  it  in  the 
post.  I  thought  therefore  I  had  better  bring  it  here 
myself.  Perhaps  Madame  la  comtesse  will  find  in  it 
some  explanation  of  this  sudden  journey,  about  which 
I  have  dreamed  all  night." 

Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  took  the  letter. 

*'  Three  black  seals  !  "  he  said. 

'*  The  color  does  n't  surprise  me,''  replied  Philippe  ; 
*'  for  since  Madame's  death  monsieur  has  not  laid  off 
his  mourning ;  but  I  do  think  three  seals  are  rather 
strange." 

*'  Very  well,"  said  Monsieur  de  PEstorade ;  "I  will 
give  the  letter  to  my  wife." 

''  If  there  should  be  anything  in  it  to  ease  my  mind 
about  monsieur,  would  Monsieur  le  comte  be  so  kind 
as  to  let  me  know?"  said  Philippe. 

"  You  can  rely  on  that,  my  good  fellow.    Au  revoir.'* 

*'I  beg  Monsieur  le  comte's  pardon  for  offering  an 
opinion,"  said  the  majordomo,  not  accepting  the  leave 
just  given  him  to  depart ;  "  but  in  case  the  letter  con- 
tained some  bad  news,  does  n't  Monsieur  le  corate  think 
that  it  would  be  best  for  him  to  know  of  it,  in  order  to 
prepare  Madame  la  comtesse  for  the  shock?" 

*'  What !  Do  you  suppose  —  "  said  Monsieur  de 
I'Estorade,  not  finishing  his  idea. 

*'  I  don't  know ;  but  monsieur  has  been  very  gloomy 
the  last  few  days." 

*'To  break  the  seal  of  a  letter  not  addressed  to  us 
is  always  a  serious  thing  to  do,"  remarked  the  peer  of 
P>ance.  '*  This  bears  my  wife's  address,  but  —  in 
point  of  fact  —  it  was  never  sent  to  her ;  in  short,  it 
is  most  embarrassing." 


380  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

"But  if  by  reading  it  some  misfortune  might  be 
averted?" 

"  Yes,  yes  ;  that  is  just  what  keeps  me  in  doubt." 

Here  Madame  de  I'Estorade  cut  the  matter  short  by 
entering  the  room.  Lucas  had  told  her  of  the  unex- 
pected arrival  of  Philippe. 

"  Is  anything  the  matter?'*  she  asked  with  anxious 
curiosity. 

The  apprehensions  Sallenauve  had  expressed  the 
night  before  as  to  Marie-Gaston's  condition  returned  to 
her  mind.  As  soon  as  Philippe  had  repeated  the  ex- 
planations he  had  already  given  to  her  husband,  she 
broke  the  seals  of  the  letter. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  contents  of  that  dis- 
quieting epistle,  nothing  was  reflected  on  Madame  de 
I'Estorade's  face. 

"You  say  that  your  master  left  Ville  d'Avray  in 
company  with  an  English  gentleman,"  she  said  to 
Philippe.  "Did  he  seem  to  go  unwillingly,  as  if 
yielding  to  violence  ?  " 

"  No,  far  from  that,  madame ;  he  seemed  to  be 
rather  cheerful." 

"Well,  there  is  nothing  that  need  make  us  uneasy. 
This  letter  was  written  some  days  ago,  and,  in  spite 
of  its  three  black  seals,  it  has  no  reference  to  anything 
that  has  happened  since." 

Philippe  bowed  and  went  away.  As  soon  as  husband 
and  wife  were  alone  together,  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade 
said,  stretching  out  his  hand  for  the  letter,  — 

"  What  did  he  wTite  about?  " 

"No,  don't  read  it,"  said  the  countess,  not  giving 
him  the  letter. 


The  Dejputy  of  Arcis,  381 

*' Why  not?" 

'*  It  would  pain  you.  It  is  enough  for  me  to  have 
had  the  shock ;  I  could  scarcely  control  myself  before 
that  old  servant." 

'*  Does  it  refer  to  suicide?  " 

Madame  de  TEstorade  nodded  her  head  in  affirma- 
tion. 

''  A  real,  immediate  intention?" 

'*  The  letter  is  dated  yesterday  morning;  and  ap- 
parently, if  it  had  not  been  for  the  providential  arrival 
of  that  P^nglishman,  the  poor  fellow  would  have  taken 
advantage  of  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve*s  absence  last 
night  to  kill  himself." 

''  The  Englishman  must  have  suspected  his  intention, 
and  carried  him  off  to  divert  him  from  it.  If  that  is 
so,  he  won't  let  him  out  of  his  sight." 

''And  we  may  also  count  on  Monsieur  Sallenauve, 
who  has  probably  joined  them  by  this  time." 

"Then  I  don't  see  that  there  is  anything  so  terrible 
in  the  letter ;  "  and  again  he  offered  to  take  it. 

*'  No,"  said  Madame  de  I'Estorade,  drawing  back, 
*'  if  I  ask  you  not  to  read  it.  Why  give  yourself 
painful  emotions?  The  letter  not  only  expresses  the 
intention  of  suicide,  but  it  shows  that  our  poor  friend 
is  completely  out  of  his  mind." 

At  this  instant  piercing  screams  from  Ren^,  her 
youngest  child,  put  Madame  de  I'Estorade  into  one 
of  those  maternal  agitations  which  she  less  than  any 
other  woman  was  able  to  control. 

''  My  God  !  "  she  cried,  as  she  rushed  from  the  study, 
*'  what  has  happened?  " 

Less  ready  to  be  alarmed.  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade 


382  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

contented  himself  by  going  to  the  door  and  asking  a 
servant  what  was  the  matter. 

"  Oh,  nothing,  Monsieur  le  comte,"  replied  the  man. 
"  Monsieur  Rene  in  shutting  a  drawer  pinched  his 
finger;   that's  all." 

The  peer  of  France  thought  it  unnecessary^  to  convey 
himself  to  the  scene  of  action  ;  he  knew,  by  experience 
in  like  cases,  that  he  must  let  his  wife's  exaggerated 
maternal  solicitude  have  free  course,  on  pain  of  being 
sharply  snubbed  himself.  As  he  returned  to  his  desk, 
he  noticed  lying  on  the  ground  the  famous  letter, 
which  Madame  de  I'Estorade  had  evidently  dropped 
in  her  hasty  flight.  Opportunity  and  a  certain 
fatality  which  appears  to  preside  over  the  conduct 
of  all  human  affairs,  impelled  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade, 
who  thought  little  of  the  shock  his  wife  had  dreaded 
for  him,  to  satisfy  his  curiosity  by  reading  the 
letter. 

Marie-Gaston  wrote  as  follows  :  — 

Madame,  —  This  letter  will  seem  to  you  less  amusing 
than  those  I  addressed  to  you  from  Arcis-sur-Aube.  But  I 
trust  you  will  not  be  alarmed  by  the  decision  which  I  now 
announce.  I  am  going  to  rejoin  my  wife,  from  whom  I 
have  been  too  long  separated ;  and  this  evening,  shortly 
after  midnight,  I  shall  be  with  her,  never  to  part  again. 

You  have,  no  doubt,  said  to  yourselves  —  you  and  Salle- 
nauve  —  that  I  was  acting  strangely  in  not  visiting  her 
grave ;  that  is  a  remark  that  two  of  my  servants  made  the 
other  day,  not  being  aware  that  I  overheard  them.  I  should 
certainly  be  a  great  fool  to  go  and  look  at  a  stone  in  the 
cemetery  which  can  make  me  no  response,  when  every 
night,  at  twelve  o'clock,  I  hear  a  little  rap  on  the  door  of 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  383 

my  room,  and  our  dear  Louise  comes  in,  not  changed  at  all, 
except,  as  I  think,  more  plump  and  beautiful.  She  has  had 
gi'eat  trouble  in  obtaining  permission  from  Marie,  queen  of 
angeLs,  to  witlidraw  me  from  earth.  But  last  night  she 
brought  me  formal  leave,  sealed  with  green  wax ;  and  she 
also  gave  me  a  tiny  vial  of  hydrocyanic  acid.  A  single  drop 
of  that  acid  puts  us  to  sleep,  and  on  waking  up  we  find 
ourselves  on  the  other  side. 

Louise  desired  me  to  give  you  a  message  from  her.  I  am 
to  tell  you  that  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  has  a  disease  of  the 
liver  and  will  not  live  long,  and  that  after  his  death  you  are 
to  marry  Sallenauve,  because,  on  the  other  side,  husbands  and 
wives  who  really  love  each  other  are  reunited;  and  she 
thinks  we  shall  all  four  —  she  and  I  and  you  and  Salle- 
nauve —  be  much  happier  together  than  if  we  had  your 
present  husband,  who  is  very  dull,  and  whom  you  married 
reluctantly. 

My  message  given,  nothing  remains  for  me,  madame,  but 
to  wish  you  all  the  patience  you  need  to  continue  for  your 
allotted  time  in  this  low  world,  and  to  subscribe  myself 
Your  very  affectionately  devoted 

Marie-Gaston. 

If,  after  reading  this  letter,  it  had  occurred  to  Mon- 
sieur de  rp^storade  to  look  at  himself  in  the  glass,  he 
would  have  seen,  in  the  sudden  convulsion  and  discol- 
oration of  his  face,  the  outward  and  visible  signs  of 
the  terrible  blow  which  his  unfortunate  curiosity  had 
brought  down  upon  him.  His  heart,  his  mind,  his  self- 
respect  staggered  under  one  and  the  same  shock ;  the 
madness  evident  in  the  sort  of  prediction  made  about 
him  only  added  to  his  sense  of  its  horror.  Presently 
convincing  himself,  like  a  mussulman,  that  madmen 
have  the  gift  of  second  sight,  he  believed  he  was  a 


384  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

lost  man,  and  instantly  a  stabbing  pain  began  on  his 
liver  side,  while  in  the  direction  of  Sallenauve,  his  pre- 
dicted successor,  an  awful  hatred  succeeded  to.  his 
mild  good-will.  But  at  the  same  time,  conscious  of 
the  total  want  of  reason  and  even  of  the  absurdity  of 
the  impression  which  had  suddenly  surged  into  his 
mind,  he  was  afraid  lest  its  existence  should  be  sus- 
pected, and  he  looked  about  him  to  see  in  what  way  he 
could  conceal  from  his  wife  his  fatal  indiscretion,  the 
consequences  of  which  must  forever  weigh  upon  his 
life.  It  was  certain,  he  thought,  that  if  she  found  the 
paper  in  his  study  she  would  deduce  therefrom  the  fact 
that  he  had  read  it.  Eising  from  his  desk,  he  softly 
opened  the  door  leading  from  the  study  to  the  salon, 
crossed  the  latter  room  on  tiptoe,  and  dropped  the 
letter  at  the  farther  end  of  it,  as  Madame  de  I'Estorade 
might  suppose  she  had  herself  done  in  her  hasty  de- 
parture. Then  returning  to  his  study,  he  scattered  his 
papers  over  his  desk,  like  a  school-boy  up  to  mischief, 
who  wants  to  mislead  his  master  by  a  show  of  appli- 
cation, intending  to  appear  absorbed  in  his  accounts 
when  his  wife  returned.  Useless  to  add  that  he  lis- 
tened with  keen  anxiety  lest  some  other  person  than 
she  should  come  into  the  salon ;  in  which  case  he 
determined  to  rush  out  and  prevent  other  eyes 
from  reading  the  dreadful  secrets  contained  in  that 
paper. 

Presently,  however,  the  voice  of  Madame  de  I'Esto- 
rade, speaking  to  some  one  at  the  door  of  the  salon, 
reassured  him  as  to  the  success  of  his  trick,  and  a 
moment  later  she  entered  the  study  accompanied  by 
Monsieur  Octave  de  Camps.    Going  forward  to  receive 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  385 

his  visitor,  he  was  able  to  see  through  the  half-opened 
door  the  place  where  he  had  thrown  the  letter.  Not 
only  had  it  disappeared,  but  he  detected  a  movement 
which  assured  him  that  Madame  de  I'Estorade  Jiad 
tucked  it  away  in  that  part  of  her  gown  where  Louis 
XIV.  did  not  dare  to  search  for  the  secrets  of  Made- 
moiselle d'Hautefort. 

"  I  have  come,  my  dear  friend,"  said  Monsieur  de 
Camps,  ''  to  get  you  to  go  with  me  to  Rastignac's,  as 
agreed  on  last  night." 

*'  Very  good,"  said  the  peer,  putting  away  his  papers 
with  a  feverish  haste  that  plainly  indicated  he  was  not 
in  his  usual  state  of  mind. 

''Don't  you  feel  well?"  asked  Madame  de  I'Esto- 
rade, who  knew  her  husband  by  heart  too  well  not  to 
be  struck  by  the  singular  stupefaction  of  his  manner, 
while  at  the  same  time,  looking  in  his  face,  she  saw 
the  signs  of  internal  convulsion. 

''  True,"  said  Monsieur  de  Camps,  "  you  certainly 
do  not  look  so  well  as  usual.  If  you  prefer  it,  we  will 
put  off  this  visit." 

''  No,  not  at  all,"  replied  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade. 
"I  have  tired  myself  with  this  work,  and  I  need  the 
air.  But  what  was  the  matter  with  Rene?"  he  in- 
quired of  his  wife,  whose  attention  he  felt  was  unpleas- 
antly fixed  upon  him.  "  What  made  him  cry  like 
that?" 

''Oh,  a  mere  nothing!"  she  replied,  not  relaxing 
her  attention. 

"  Well,  my  dear  fellow,"  said  the  peer,  trying  to 
take  an  easy  tone,  "  just  let  me  change  my  coat  and 
I'll  be  with  you." 

25 


386  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

When  the  countess  was  alone  with  Monsieur  de 
Camps,  she  said,  rather  anxiously,  — 

"  Don't  you  think  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  seems 
very  much  upset  ?  " 

*'  Yes  ;  as  I  said  just  now,  he  does  not  look  like  him- 
self. But  the  explanation  he  gave  seems  sufficient. 
This  office  life  is  bad  for  the  health.  I  have  never 
been  as  well  as  since  I  am  actively  engaged  about  my 
iron-works." 

''  Yes,  certainly,"  said  Madame  de  I'Estorade,  with 
a  heavy  sigh;  ''  he  ought  to  have  a  more  active  life. 
It  seems  plain  that  there  is  something  amiss  with  his 
liver." 

''  What!  because  he  is  so  yellow?  He  has  been  so 
ever  since  I  have  known  him." 

"  Oh,  monsieur,  I  can't  be  mistaken  !  There  is  some- 
thing seriously  the  matter  with  him ;  and  if  you  would 
kindly  do  me  a  service  —  " 

"  Madame,  I  am  always  at  your  orders." 

''  When  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  returns,  speak  of 
the  injury  to  Rene's  finger,  and  tell  me  that  little 
wounds  like  that  sometimes  have  serious  consequences 
if  not  attended  to  at  once,  and  that  will  give  me  an 
excuse  to  send  for  Doctor  Bianchon." 

"Certainly,"  replied  Monsieur  de  Camps;  ''but  I 
really  don't  think  a  physician  is  necessary.  Still,  if  it 
reassures  you  —  " 

At  this  moment  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  reappeared. 
He  had  almost  recovered  his  usual  expression  of  face, 
but  he  exhaled  a  strong  odor  of  melisse  des  Carmes^ 
which  indicated  that  he  had  felt  the  need  of  that  tonic. 
Monsieur  de  Camps  played  his  part  admirably,  and  as 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  387 

for  Madame  de  TEstorade  it  did  not  cost  her  much 
trouble  to  simulate  maternal  anxiety. 

'*  My  dear,"  siie  said  to  her  luisband,  when  Monsieur 
de  Camps  had  delivered  himself  of  his  medical  opinion, 
"  as  you  return  from  Monsieur  de  Rastignac's,  please 
call  on  Doctor  Bianchon  and  ask  him  to  come  here." 

*'  Pooh!  "  said  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  shrugging  his 
shoulders,  ''  the  idea  of  disturbing  a  busy  man  like 
him  for  what  you  yourself  said  was  a  mere  nothing !  " 

"  If  you  won't  go,  T  shall  send  Lucas;  Monsieur  de 
Camps'  opinion  has  completely  upset  me." 

*'If  it  pleases  you  to  be  ridiculous,"  said  the  peer 
of  France,  crossly,  '*I  have  no  means  of  preventing 
it ;  but  I  beg  you  to  remark  one  thing :  if  people  dis- 
turb physicians  for  mere  nonsense,  they  often  can't 
get  tliem  when  they  are  really  wanted." 

**  Then  you  won't  go  for  the  doctor?" 

''Not  I,"  replied  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade ;  '*and  if 
I  had  the  honor  of  being  anything  in  my  own  house, 
I  should  forbid  you  to  send  anybody  in  my  place." 

"  My  dear,  you  are  the  master  here,  and  since  j^ou 
put  so  much  feeling  into  your  refusal,  let  us  say  no 
more ;  I  will  bear  my  anxiety  as  best  I  can." 

"Come,  de  Camps,"  said  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade; 
"  for  if  this  goes  on,  I  shall  be  sent  to  order  that 
child's  funeral." 

"But,  my  dear  husband, '^  said  the  countess,  taking 
his  hand,  "  you  must  be  ill,  to  say  such  dreadful  things 
in  that  cool  way.  Where  is  your  usual  patience  witli 
my  little  maternal  worries,  or- your  exquisite  politeness 
for  every  one,  your  wife  included?  " 

"  But,''  said  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  getting  more 


k 


388  The  Beauty  of  Arcis. 

excited  instead  of  calmer,  under  this  form  of  studied 
though  friendly  reproach,  "your  maternal  feelings  are 
turning  into  monomania,  and  you  make  life  intolerable 
to  every  one  but  your  children.  The  devil !  suppose 
they  are  your  children  ;  I  am  their  father,  and,  though 
I  am  not  adored  as  they  are,  I  have  the  right  to 
request  that  my  house  be  not  made  uninhabitable  !  " 

While  Monsieur  de  TEstorade,  striding  about  the 
room,  delivered  himself  of  this  philippic,  the  countess 
made  a  despairing  sign  to  Monsieur  de  Camps,  as  if 
to  ask  him  whether  he  did  not  see  most  alarming  symp- 
toms in  such  a  scene.  In  order  to  cut  short  the 
quarrel  of  which  he  had  been  the  involuntary  cause, 
the  latter  said,  as  if  hurried,  — 

"  Come,  let  us  go!  " 

"Yes,"  replied  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  passing  out 
first  and  neglecting  to  say  good-bye  to  his  wife. 

"Ah!  stay;  I  have  forgotten  a  message  my  wife 
gave  me,"  said  Monsieur  de  Camps,  turning  back  to 
Madame  de  I'Estorade.  "  She  told  me  to  say  she 
would  come  for  you  at  two  o'clock  to  go  and  see  the 
spring  things  at  the  '  Jean  de  Paris,'  and  she  has 
arranged  that  after  that  we  shall  all  four  go  to  the 
flower-show.  When  we  leave  Rastignac,  I'Estorade 
and  I  will  come  back  here,  and  wait  for  you  if  you 
have  not  returned  before  us." 

Madame  de  I'Estorade  paid  little  attention  to  this 
i^rogramme,  for  a  flash  of  light  had  illumined  her 
mind.  As  soon  as  she  was  alone,  she  took  Marie- 
Gaston's  letter  from  her  gown,  and,  finding  it  folded 
in  the  proper  manner,  she  exclaimed,  — 

"Not  a  doubt  of  it!    I  remember  perfectly  that  I 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  389 

folded  it  with  the  writing  outside,  as  I  put  it  back  into 
the  envelope  ;  he  must  have  read  it !  " 

An  hour  later,  Madame  de  I'Estorade  and  Madame 
de  Camps  met  in  the  same  salon  where  they  had  talked 
of  Sallenaiive  a  few  days  earlier. 

"Good  heavens!  what  is  the  matter  with  you?" 
cried  Madame  de  Camps,  seeing  tears  on  the  face  of 
her  friend,  who  was  finishing  a  letter  she  had  written. 

Madame  de  I'Estorade  told  her  all  that  had  hap- 
pened, and  showed  her  Marie-Gaston's  letter. 

''Are  you  very  sure,"  asked  Madame  de  Camps, 
"  that  your  husband  has  read  the  luckless  scrawl?  " 

"  How  can  I  doubt  it?  "  returned  Madame  de  I'Esto- 
rade.  "  The  paper  can't  have  turned  of  itself ;  besides, 
in  recalling  the  circumstances,  I  have  a  dim  recollec- 
tion that  at  the  moment  when  I  started  to  run  to 
Rene  I  felt  something  drop,  —  fate  willed  that  I  should 
not  stop  to  pick  it  up." 

"  Often,  when  people  strain  their  memories  in  that 
way  they  fasten  on  some  false  indication." 

"But,  my  dear  friend,  the  extraordinary  change  in 
the  face  and  behavior  of  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  com- 
ing so  suddenly  as  it  did,  must  have  been  the  result 
of  some  sudden  shock.  He  looked  like  a  man  struck 
by  lightning." 

"  But  if  you  account  for  the  change  in  his  appear- 
ance in  that  way,  why  look  for  symptoms  of  something 
wrong  with  his  liver?" 

"  Ah !  this  is  not  the  first  time  I  have  seen  symp- 
toms of  that,"  replied  Madame  de  I'Estorade.  "  But 
you  know  when  sick  people  don't  complain,  we  forget 
about  their  illness.    See,"  and  she  pointed  to  a  volume 


L 


890  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

lying  open  beside  her;  "just  before  you  came  in,  I 
found  in  this  medical  dictionary  that  persons  who 
suffer  from  diseases  of  the  liver  are  apt  to  be  morose, 
irritable,  impatient.  Well,  for  some  time  past,  I  have 
noticed  a  great  change  in  my  husband's  disposition. 
You  yourself  mentioned  it  to  me  the  other  day.  Be- 
sides, the  scene  Monsieur  de  Camps  has  just  wit- 
nessed —  which  is,  I  may  truly  say,  unprecedented  in 
our  household  —  is  enough  to  prove  it." 

"  My  dear  love,  you  are  like  those  unpleasant  per- 
sons who  are  resolved  to  torture  themselves.  In  the 
first  place,  you  have  looked  into  medical  books,  which 
is  the  very  height  of  imprudence.  I  defy  you  to  read 
a  description  of  any  sort  of  disease  without  fancying 
that  either  you  or  some  friends  of  yours  have  the 
symptoms  of  it.  In  the  next  place,  you  are  mixing  up 
things ;  the  effects  of  fear  and  of  a  chronic  malady 
are  totally  different." 

"  No,  I  am  not  mixing  them  up  ;  I  know  what  I  am 
talking  about.  You  don't  need  to  be  told  that  if  in 
our  poor  human  machine  some  one  part  gets  out  of 
order,  it  is  on  that  that  any  strong  emotion  will  strike." 

"Well,"  said  Madame  de  Camps,  not  pursuing  the 
medical  discussion,  "  if  the  letter  of  that  unhappy 
madman  has  really  fallen  into  the  hands  of  your 
husband,  the  peace  of  your  home  is  seriously  en- 
dangered; that  is  the  point  to  be  discussed." 

"  There  are  not  two  ways  to  be  followed  as  to  that," 
said  Madame  de  I'Estorade.  "  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve 
must  never  set  foot  in  this  house  again." 

"That  is  precisely  what  I  came  to  speak  about  to- 
day.    Do  you  know  that  last  night  I  did  not  think  you 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  391 

showed  the  composure  which  is  so  marked  a  trait  in 
your  character?" 

'*  When?"  asked  Madame  de  FEstorade. 

"  Why,  when  you  expressed  so  effusively  your 
gratitude  to  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve.  When  I  advised 
you  not  to  avoid  him,  for  fear  it  would  induce  him  to 
keep  at  your  heels,  I  never  intended  that  you  should 
shower  your  regard  upon  his  head  in  a  way  to  turn  it. 
The  wife  of  so  zealous  a  dynastic  partisan  as  Monsieur 
de  I'Estorade  ought  to  know  what  ihQ  juste  milieu  is  by 
this  time." 

''Ah!  my  dear,  I  entreat  you,  don't  make  fun  of 
my  poor  husband." 

''  I  am  not  talking  of  your  husband,  I  am  talking  of 
you.  Last  night  you  so  surprised  me  that  I  have  come 
here  to  take  back  my  words.  I  like  people  to  follow 
my  advice,  but  I  don't  like  them  to  go  beyond  it." 

"  At  any  other  time  I  should  make  you  explain  what 
horrible  impropriety  I  have  committed  under  your 
counsel ;  but  fate  has  interposed  and  settled  every- 
thing. Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  will,  at  any  cost,  dis- 
appear from  our  path,  and  therefore  why  discuss  the 
degree  of  kindness  one  might  have  shown  him?" 

''But,"  said  Madame  de  Camps,  "  since  I  must  tell 
you  all,  I  have  come  to  think  him  a  dangerous  ac- 
quaintance, —  less  for  you  than  for  some  one  else." 

"  Who?"  asked  Madame  de  I'P^storade. 

"  Nais.  That  child,  with  her  passion  for  her 
'  preserver,'  makes  me  really  uneasy." 

"  Oh  !  "  said  the  countess,  smiling  rather  sadly,  "  are 
not  you  giving  too  much  importance  to  childish 
nonsense?" 


392  The  Deputy  of  Areis. 

"Nai's  is,  of  course,  a  child,  but  a  child  who  will 
ripen  quickly  into  a  woman.  Did  you  not  tell  me 
yourself  that  you  were  sometimes  frightened  at  the 
intuition  she  showed  in  matters  beyond  her  years  ?  " 

''■That  is  true.  But  what  you  call  her  passion 
for  Monsieur  de  Sallenauvc,  besides  being  perfectly 
natural,  is  expressed  by  the  dear  little  thing  with  such 
freedom  and  publicity  that  the  sentiment  is,  it  seems 
to  me,  obviously  childlike." 

"  Well,  don't  trust  to  that;  especially  not  after  this 
troublesome  being  ceases  to  come  to  your  house.  Sup- 
pose that  when  the  time  comes  to  marry  your  daughter, 
this  fancy  should  have  smouldered  in  her  heart  and 
increased  ;  imagine  your  difficulty  !  " 

''  Oh  !  between  now  and  then,  thank  Heaven !  there  's 
time  enough,"  replied  Madame  de  I'Estorade,  in  a  tone 
of  incredulity. 

"Between  now  and  then,"  said  Madame  de  Camps, 
'*  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  may  have  reached  a  distinction 
which  will  put  his  name  on  every  lip ;  and  Nais,  with 
her  lively  imagination,  is  more  likely  than  other  girls  to 
be  dazzled  by  it." 

"  But,  my  dear  love,  look  at  the  disproportion  in 
their  ages." 

''MoDsieur  de  Sallenauve  is  thirty,  and  Nais  will 
soon  be  fourteen ;  that  is  precisely  the  difference 
between  ^^ou  and  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade." 

"  Well,  you  may  be  right,"  said  Madame  de 
I'Estorade,  "and  the  sort  of  marriage  I  made  from 
reason  Nais  may  want  to  make  from  folly.  But 
you  need  n't  be  afraid ;  I  will  ruin  that  idol  in  her 
estimation." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  398 

*'  But  there  again,  as  in  the  comedy  of  hatred  you 
mean  to  play  for  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade's  benefit,  you 
need  moderation.  If  you  do  not  manage  it  by  careful 
transitions,  you  may  miss  your  end.  Never  allow  the 
influence  of  circumstances  to  appear  when  it  is  desirable 
that  an  impulse  or  an  action  should  seem  spontaneous." 

"  But,"  said  Madame  de  I'Estorade,  excitedly,  ''do 
you  think  that  my  hatred,  as  you  call  it,  will  be  acted? 
I  do  hate  him,  that  man ;  he  is  our  evil  genius  !  " 

''  Come,  come,  my  dear,  be  calm  !  I  don't  know  you 
—  you,  who  have  always  been  Reason  incarnate." 

At  this  moment  Lucas  entered  the  room  and  asked 
his  mistress  if  she  would  receive  a  Monsieur  Jacques 
Bricheteau.  Madame  de  I'Estorade  looked  at  her 
friend,  as  if  to  consult  her. 

'*  He  is  that  organist  who  was  so  useful  to  Monsieur 
de  Sallenauve  during  the  election.  I  don't  know  what 
he  can  want  of  me." 

**  Never  mind,"  said  Madame  de  Camps,  ''  receive 
him.  Before  beginning  hostilities  it  is  always  well  to 
know  what  is  going  on  in  the  enemy's  camp." 

"  Show  him  in,"  said  the  countess. 

Jacques  Bricheteau  entered.  Expecting  to  be  re- 
ceived in  a  friendly  country,  he  had  not  taken  any 
particular  pains  with  his  dress.  An  old  maroon  frock- 
coat  to  the  cut  of  which  it  would  have  been  difficult  to 
assign  a  date,  a  plaid  waistcoat  buttoned  to  the  throat, 
surmounted  by  a  black  cravat  worn  without  a  collar 
and  twisted  round  the  neck,  yellowish  trousers,  gray 
stockings,  and  laced  shoes, — such  was  the  more  than 
negligent  costume  in  which  the  organist  allowed  himself 
to  appear  in  a  countess's  salon. 


394  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

Requested  briefly  to  sit  down,  he  said,  — 

"  Madame,  I  hope  I  am  not  indiscreet  in  thus  pre- 
senting myself  without  having  the  honor  of  being 
known  to  you,  but  Monsieur  Marie-Gaston  told  me  of 
your  desire  that  I  should  give  music-lessons  to  your 
daughter.  At  first  I  replied  that  it  was  impossible,  for 
ail  my  time  was  occupied ;  but  the  prefect  of  police 
has  just  afforded  me  some  leisure  by  dismissing  me 
from  a  place  I  filled  in  his  department ;  therefore  I  am 
now  happy  to  place  myself  at  your  disposal." 

"Your  dismissal,  monsieur,  was  caused  by  your 
activity  in  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve's  election,  was  it 
not?"  asked  Madame  de  Camps. 

* '  As  no  reason  was  assigned  for  it,  I  think  your 
conjecture  is  probably  correct ;  especially  as  in  twenty 
years  I  have  had  no  trouble  whatever  with  my  chiefs." 

''  It  can't  be  denied,"  said  Madame  de  I'Estorade, 
sharply,  "  that  you  have  opposed  the  views  of  the 
government  by  this  proceeding." 

"  Consequently,  madame,  I  have  accepted  this  dis- 
missal as  an  expected  evil.  What  interest,  after  all, 
had  I  in  retaining  my  paltry  post,  compared  to  that  of 
Monsieur  de  Sallenauve's  election?" 

"  I  am  very  sorry,"  resumed  Madame  de  I'Estorade, 
*'  to  be  unable  to  accept  the  offer  you  are  good  enough 
to  make  me.  But  I  have  not  yet  considered  the  ques- 
tion of  a  music-master  for  my  daughter;  and,  in  any 
case,  I  fear  that,  in  view  of  your  great  and  recognized 
talent,  your  instruction  would  be  too  advanced  for  a 
little  girl  of  fourteen." 

''Well,"  said  Jacques  Bricheteau,  smiling,  "  no  one 
has  recognized  my  talent,  madame.  Monsieur  de  Salle- 


The  Deputy  of  Arch.  395 

nauve  and  Monsieur  Marie-Gaston  have  only  heard 
me  once  or  twice.  Apart  from  that  I  am  the  most  ob- 
scure of  professors,  and  perhaps  the  dullest.  But 
setting  aside  the  question  of  your  daughter's  master, 
I  wish  to  speak  of  a  far  more  important  interest,  which 
has,  in  fact,  brought  me  here.  I  mean  Monsieur  de 
Sallenauve." 

''  Has  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve,"  said  Madame  de 
I'Estorade,  with  marked  coldness  of  manner,  ''sent 
you  here  with  a  message  to  my  husband  ?  " 

"No,  madame,"  replied  Jacques  Bricheteau,  "he 
has  unfortunately  given  me  no  message.  I  cannot 
find  him.  I  went  to  Ville  d'Avray  this  morning,  and 
was  told  that  he  had  started  on  a  journey  with  Monsieur 
Marie-Gaston.  The  servant  having  told  me  that  the 
object  and  direction  of  this  journey  were  probably 
known  to  you  —  " 

"Not  in  any  way,**  interrupted  Madame .  de  TEs- 
torade,  curtly. 

Not  as  yet  perceiving  that  his  visit  w^as  unaccept- 
able and  that  no  explanation  was  desired,  Jacques 
Bricheteau  persisted  in  his  statement :  — 

"  This  morning  I  received  a  letter  from  the  notary 
at  Arcis-sur-Aube,  who  informs  me  that  my  aunt, 
Mother  Marie-des-Anges,  desires  me  to  be  told  of  a 
scandalous  intrigue  now  being  organized  for  the  pur- 
pose of  ousting  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  from  his  post 
as  deputy.  The  absence  of  our  friend  will  seriously 
complicate  the  matter.  We  can  take  no  steps  with- 
out him ;  and  I  cannot  understand  why  he  should 
disappear  without  informing  those  who  take  the  deep- 
est interest  in  him." 


396  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

'  ^  That  he  has  not  informed  you  is  certainly  singular," 
replied  Madame  de  I'Estorade,  in  the  same  freezing 
tone;  "  but  as  for  my  husband  or  me,  there  is  nothing 
to  be  surprised  about." 

The  meaning  of  this  discourteous  answer  was  too 
plain  for  Jacques  Bricheteau  not  to  perceive  it.  He 
looked  straight  at  the  countess,  who  lowered  her  eyes  ; 
but  the  whole  expression  of  her  countenance,  due 
north,  confirmed  the  meaning  he  could  no  longer  mis- 
take in  her  words. 

"Pardon  me,  madame,"  he  said,  rising.  "I  was 
not  aware  that  the  future  and  the  reputation  of 
Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  had  become  indifferent  to  you. 
Only  a  moment  ago,  in  your  antechamber,  when  your 
servant  hesitated  to  take  in  my  name.  Mademoiselle, 
your  daughter,  as  soon  as  she  heard  I  was  the  friend 
of  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve,  took  my  part  warmly ;  and 
I  had  the  stupidity  to  suppose  that  such  friendliness 
was  the  tone  of  the  family." 

After  this  remark,  which  gave  Madame  de  I'Estorade 
the  full  change  for  her  coin,  Jacques  Bricheteau  bowed 
ceremoniously  and  was  about  to  leave  the  room,  w^hen 
a  sudden  contradiction  of  the  countess's  comedy  of 
indifference  appeared  in  the  person  of  Nais,  who 
rushed  in  exclaiming  triumphantly,  — 

"  Mamma,  a  letter  from  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve !  " 

The  countess  turned  crimson. 

''  What  do  you  mean  by  running  in  here  like  a  crazy 
girl?"  she  said  sternly;  '^and  how  do  you  know  that 
this  letter  is  from  the  person  you  mention?  " 

"  Oh  ! "  replied  Nais,  twisting  the  knife  in  the  wound, 
"  when  he  wrote  you  those  letters  from  Arcis-sur- 
Aube,  I  saw  his  handwriting." 


The  Deputy  of  Areis.  397 

''  You  are  a  silly,  inquisitive  little  girl,"  said  her 
mother,  driven  by  these  aggravating  circumstances 
quite  outside  of  her  usual  habits  of  indulgence.  "Go 
to  your  room."  Then  she  added  to  Jacques  Bricheteau, 
who  lingered  after  the  luckless  arrival  of  the  letter,  — 

'*  Permit  me,  monsieur." 

''  It  is  for  me,  madame,  to  ask  permission  to  remain 
until  you  have  read  that  letter.  If  by  chance  Monsieur 
de  Sallenauve  gives  you  any  particulars  about  his  jour- 
ney, you  will,  perhaps,  allow  me  to  profit  by  them." 

*'  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve,''  said  the  countess,  after 
reading  the  letter,  "  requests  me  to  inform  my  husband 
that  he  has  gone  to  Hanwell,  county  of  Middlesex, 
England.  You  can  address  him  there,  monsieur,  to 
the  care  of  Doctor  Ellis. " 

Jacques  Bricheteau  made  a  second  ceremonious  bow 
and  left  the  room. 

''  Na'is  has  just  given  you  a  taste  of  her  quality," 
said  Madame  de  Camps ;  '^  but  you  deserved  it,  — you 
really  treated  that  poor  man  too  harshly." 

"  I  could  not  help  it,"  replied  Madame  de  I'Estorade  ; 
*'  the  day  began  wrong,  and  all  the  rest  follows  suit." 

*' Well,  about  the  letter?" 

'*  It  is  dreadful;  read  it  yourself." 

Madame  (wrote  Sallenauve),  —  I  was  able  to  overtake 
Lord  Lewin,  the  Englishman  of  whom  I  spoke  to  you,  a  few 
miles  out  of  Paris.  Providence  sent  him  to  Ville  d'Avray 
to  save  us  from  an  awful  misfortune.  Possessing  an  immense 
fortune,  he  is,  like  so  many  of  his  countrymen,  a  victim  to 
spleen,  and  it  is  only  his  natural  force  of  character  which 
has  saved  him  from  the  worst  results  of  that  malady.  His 
indifference  to  life  and  the  perfect  coolness  with  which  he 


398  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

spoke  of  suicide  won  him  Marie- Gaston's  friendship  in 
Florence.  Lord  Lewin,  having  studied  the  subject  of  violent 
emotions,  is  very  intimate  with  Doctor  Ellis,  a  noted  alienist, 
and  it  not  infrequently  happens  that  he  spends  two  or  three 
weeks  with  him  at  Han  well,  Middlesex  Co.,  one  of  the  best- 
managed  lunatic  asylums  in  England,  —  Doctor  Ellis  being 
in  charge  of  it. 

When  he  arrived  at  Ville  d'Avray,  Lord  Lewin  saw  at 
once  that  Marie-Gaston  had  all  the  symptoms  of  incipient 
mania.  Invisible  to  other  eyes,  they  were  apparent  to  those  of 
Lord  Lewin.  In  speaking  to  me  of  our  poor  friend,  he  used  the 
word  cMffonait,  —  meaning  that  he  picked  up  rubbish  as  he 
walked,  bits  of  straw,  scraps  of  paper,  rusty  nails,  and  put  them 
carefully  into  his  pocket.  That,  he  informed  me,  is  a  marked 
symptom  well  known  to  those  who  study  the  first  stages  of 
insanity.  Enticing  him  to  the  subject  of  their  conversations 
in  Florence,  he  obtained  the  fact  that  the  poor  fellow  medi- 
tated suicide,  and  the  reason  for  it.  Every  night,  Gaston 
told  him,  his  wife  appeared  to  him,  and  he  had  now  resolved 
to  rejoin  her,  to  use  his  own  expression.  Instead  of  opposing 
this  idea.  Lord  Lewin  took  a  tone  of  approval.  "  But,"  he 
said,  "  men  such  as  we  ought  not  to  die  in  a  common  way. 
I  myself  have  always  had  the  idea  of  going  to  South  Amer- 
ica, where,  not  far  from  Paraguay,  there  is  one  of  the  greatest 
cataracts  in  the  world,  —  the  Saut  de  Gayra.  The  mists  ris- 
ing from  it  can  be  seen  at  a  distance  of  many  miles.  An 
enormous  volume  of  water  is  suddenly  forced  through  a  nar- 
row channel,  and  rushes  with  terrific  force  and  the  noise  of  a 
hundred  thunder-claps  into  the  gulf  below.  There,  indeed, 
one  could  find  a  noble  death." 

"  Let  us  go  there,"  said  Gaston. 

"  Yes,"  said  Lord  Lewin,  "  I  am  ready  to  go  at  once  ;  we 
must  sail  from  England ;  it  will  take  a  few  weeks  to  get 
there." 

In  this  way,  madame,  he  enticed  our  poor  friend  to  Eng- 
land, where,  as  you  will  already  have  supposed,  he  has  placed 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  399 

him  in  charge  of  Doctor  Ellis,  who,  they  say,  has  not  his  equal 
ill  Euroi>e  for  the  treatment  of  this  particular  form  of  mental 
aberration. 

I  joined  them  at  Beauvais,  and  have  followed  them  to 
Hanwell,  taking  care  not  to  be  seen  by  Marie-Gaston.  Here 
1  shall  be  detained  until  the  doctor  is  able  to  give  a  decided 
opinion  as  to  the  probable  results  of  our  friend's  condition. 
I  greatly  fear,  however,  that  I  cannot  possibly  return  to 
Paris  in  time  for  the  opening  of  the  session.  But  I  shall 
write  to  the  president  of  the  Chamber,  and  in  case  any  ques- 
tion regarding  my  absence  should  arise,  may  I  ask  Monsieur 
de  I'Estorade  to  do  me  the  favor  of  stating  that,  to  his  knowl- 
edge, I  have  been  absolutely  forced  by  sufficient  reasons  to 
absent  myself  ?  He  will,  of  course,  understand  that  I  ought 
not  to  explain  under  any  circumstances  the  nature  of  the  af- 
fair which  has  taken  me  out  of  the  country  at  this  unlucky 
time ;  but  I  am  certain  it  will  be  all-sufficient  if  a  man  of 
Monsieur  de  I'Estorade's  position  and  character  guarantees 
the  necessity  of  my  absence. 

I  beg  you  to  accept,  madame,  etc.,  etc. 

As  Madame  de  Camps  finished  reading  the  letter,  the 
sound  of  a  carriage  entering  the  courtyard  was  heard. 

"  There  are  the  gentlemen,"  said  the  countess. 
''  Now,  had  I  better  show  this  letter  to  my  husband  or 
not?'* 

**  You  can't  avoid  doing  so,"  replied  Madame  de 
Camps.  **  In  the  first  place,  Nais  will  chatter  about  it. 
Besides,  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  addresses  you  in  a 
most  respectful  manner,  and  there  is  nothing  in  the 
letter  to  feed  your  husband's  notion." 

"  Who  is  that  common-looking  man  I  met  on  the 
stairs  talking  with  Nais?"  said  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade 
to  his  wife,  as  he  entered  the  salon. 


400  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

As  Madame  de  I'Estorade  did  not  seem  to  under- 
stand him,  he  added,  — 

"  He  is  x^itted  with  the  small-pox,  and  wears  a  ma- 
roon coat  and  shabby  hat." 

"Oh!"  said  Madame  de  Camps,  addressing  her 
friend;  "it  must  be  the  man  who  was  here  just  now. 
Nais  has  seized  the  occasion  to  inquire  about  her  idol." 

"  But  who  is  he?  "  repeated  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade. 

"  I  think  his  name  is  Bricheteau ;  he  is  a  friend  of 
Monsieur  de  Sallenauve,"  replied  Madame  de  Camps. 

Seeing  the  cloud  on  her  husband's  brow,  Madame  de 
I'Estorade  hastened  to  explain  the  double  object  of  the 
organist's  visit,  and  she  gave  him  the  letter  of  the  new 
deputy.  While  he  was  reading  it,  Madame  de  I'Esto- 
rade said,  aside,  to  Monsieur  de  Camps,  — 

"  He  seems  to  me  much  better,  don't  you  think  so?  " 

"  Yes;  there's  scarcely  a  trace  left  of  what  we  saw 
this  morning.  He  was  too  wrought  up  about  his  work. 
Going  out  did  him  good ;  and  yet  he  met  with  a  rather 
unpleasant  surprise  at  Rastignac's." 

"What  was  it?"  asked  Madame  de  I'Estorade, 
anxiously. 

"  It  seems  that  the  affairs  of  your  friend  Sallenauve 
are  going  wrong." 

"Thanks  for  the  commission!''  said  Monsieur  de 
I'Estorade,  returning  the  letter  to  his  wife.  "I  shall 
take  very  good  care  not  to  guarantee  his  conduct  in  any 
respect." 

"Have  you  heard  anything  disagreeable  about 
him?"  asked  Madame  de  I'Estorade,  endeavoring  to 
give  a  tone  of  indifference  to  her  question. 

"Yes;  Rastignac  has  just  told  me  of  letters  received 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  401 

from  Arcis,  where  they  have  made  the  most  compro- 
mising discoveries." 

'*Well,  what  did  I  tell  you?"  cried  Madame  de 
I'Eslorade. 

"How  do  you  mean?     What  did  you  tell  me?" 

"I  told  you  some  time  ago  that  the  acquaintance 
was  one  that  had  better  be  allowed  to  die  out.  I 
remember  using  that  very  expression." 

''But  /didn't  draw  him  here." 

"Well,  you  can't  say  that  I  did;  and  just  now, 
before  I  knew  of  these  discoveries  you  speak  of,  I 
was  telling  Madame  de  Camps  of  another  reason  why 
it  was  desirable  to  put  an  end  to  the  acquaintance." 

"Yes,"  said  Madame  de  Camps,  "your  wife  and  I 
were  just  discussing,  as  you  came  in,  the  sort  of 
frenzy  Nais  has  taken  for  what  she  calls  her  '  pre- 
server.' We  agreed  in  thinking  there  might  be  future 
danger  in  that  direction." 

"From  all  points  of  view,"  said  Monsieur  de 
I'Estorade,  "it  is  an  unwholesome  acquaintance." 

"It  seems  to  me,"  said  Monsieur  de  Camps,  who 
was  not  in  the  secret  of  these  opinions,  "that  you  go 
too  fast.  They  may  have  made  what  they  call  com- 
promising discoveries  about  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve; 
but  what  is  the  value  of  those  discoveries?  Don't 
hang  him  till  a  verdict  has  been  rendered." 

"My  husband  can  do  as  he  likes,"  said  Madame  de 
I'Estorade;  "but  as  for  me,  I  shall  drop  the  acquaint- 
ance at  once.  I  want  my  friends  to  be,  like  Caesar's 
wife,  beyond  suspicion." 

"Unfortunately,"  said  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade, 
"there's  that  unfortunate  obligation  —  " 

26 


402  T7ie  Deputy  of  Arcis.  < 

"But,  my  dear,"  cried  ^Madame  de  I'Estorade,  "if 
a  galley-slave  saved  my  life,  must  I  admit  him  to  my 
salon?" 

"Oh!  dearest,"  exclaimed  Madame  de  Camps,  "you 
are  going  too  far." 

"At  any  rate,"  said  the  peer  of  France,  "there  is 
no  need  to  make  an  open  rupture;  let  things  end 
quietly  between  us.  The  dear  man  is  now  in  foreign 
parts,  and  who  knows  if  he  means  to  return  ?  " 

"What!  "  exclaimed  Monsieur  de  Camps,  "has  he 
left  the  country  for  a  mere  rumor?  " 

"Not  precisely  for  that  reason,"  said  Monsieur 
de  I'Estorade;  "he  found  a  pretext.  But  once  out  of 
France,  you  know  —  " 

"I  don't  believe  in  that  conclusion,"  said  Madame 
de  I'Estorade;  "I  think  he  will  return,  and  if  so,  my 
dear,  you  really  must  take  your  courage  in  both  hands 
and  cut  short  his  acquaintance." 

"Is  that,"  said  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  looking 
attentively  at  his  wife,  "your  actual  desire?" 

"Mine?"  she  replied;  "if  I  had  my  way,  I  should 
write  to  him  and  say  that  he  would  do  us  a  favor  by 
not  reappearing  in  our  house.  As  that  would  be  rather 
a  difficult  letter  to  write,  let  us  write  it  together,  if 
you  are  willing." 

"We  will  see  about  it,"  said  Monsieur  de  I'Esto- 
rade, brightening  up  under  this  suggestion;  "there's 
no  danger  in  going  slow.  The  most  pressing  thing 
at  this  moment  is  the  flower-show ;  I  think  it  closes  at 
four  o'clock;  if  so,  we  have  only  an  hour  before  us." 

Madame  de  I'Estorade,  who  had  dressed  before  the 
arrival  of  Madame  de  Camps,  rang  for  her  maid  to 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  403 

bring  her  a  bonnet  and  shawl.  While  she  was  putting 
them  on  before  a  mirror,  her  husband  came  up  behind 
her  and  whispered  in  her  ear,  — 

''Then  you  really  love  me,  Renee?  " 

"Are  you  crazy,  to  ask  me  such  a  question  as 
that?  '*  she  answered,  looking  at  him  affectionately. 

''Well,  then,  I  must  make  a  confession:  that  letter, 
which  Philippe  brought  —  I  read  it." 

"Then  I  am  not  surprised  at  the  change  in  your 
looks  and  manner,"  said  his  wife.  "I,  too,  will 
make  you  a  confession:  that  letter  to  Monsieur  de 
Sallenauve,  giving  him  his  dismissal,  —  I  have  written 
it;  you  will  find  it  in  my  blotting-book.  If  you  think 
it  will  do,  send  it." 

Quite  beside  himself  with  delight  at  finding  his 
proposed  successor  so  readily  sacrificed.  Monsieur  de 
rp^storade  did  not  control  his  joy;  taking  his  wife  in 
his  arms,  he  kissed  her  effusively. 

"Well  done!  "  cried  Monsieur  de  Camps,  laughing; 
"you  have  improved  since  morning." 

"This  morning  I  was  a  fool,"  said  the  peer  of 
France,  hunting  in  the  blotting-book  for  the  letter, 
which  he  might  have  had  the  grace  to  believe  in  with- 
out seeing. 

"Hush!"  said  Madame  de  Camps,  in  a  low  voice 
to  her  husband,  to  prevent  further  remarks.  "I  '11 
explain  this  queer  performance  to  you  by  and  by." 

Rejuvenated  by  ten  years  at  least,  the  peer  of 
France  offered  his  arm  to  Madame  de  Camps,  while 
the  amateur  iron-master  offered  his  to  the  countess. 

"But  Nais!  "  said  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  noticing 
the  melancholy  face  of  his  daughter,  who  was  looking 


404  The  Deputy  of  Areis, 

over  the    stairs   at   the   party.      "Is  n*t   she    going 
too?" 

"No,"  said  the  countess;  "I  am  displeased  with 
her." 

"Ah,  bah!"  said  the  father.  "I  proclaim  an 
amnesty.  Get  your  hat,"  he  added,  addressing  his 
daughter. 

Na'is  looked  at  her  mother  to  obtain  a  ratification, 
which  her  knowledge  of  the  hierarchy  of  power  in  that 
establishment  made  her  judge  to  be  necessary. 

"You  can  come,"  said  her  mother,  "if  your  father 
wishes  it." 

While  they  waited  in  the  antechamber  for  the  child. 
Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  noticed  that  Lucas  was  stand- 
ing up  beside  a  half-finished  letter. 

"Whom  are  you  writing  to?"  he  said  to  his  old 
servant. 

"To  my  son,"  replied  Lucas,  "who  is  very  impatient 
to  get  his  sergeant's  stripes.  I  am  telling  him  that 
Monsieur  le  comte  has  promised  to  speak  to  his  colonel- 
for  him." 

"True,  true,"  said  the  peer  of  France;  "it  slipped 
my  memory.  Remind  me  of  it  to-morrow  morning, 
and  I  '11  do  it  the  first  thing  after  I  am  up." 

"Monsieur  le  comte  is  very  good  —  " 

"And  here,"  continued  his  master,  feeling  in  his 
waistcoat  pocket,  and  producing  three  gold  pieces, 
"send  that  to  the  corporal,  and  tell  him  to  drink  a 
welcome  to  the  stripes." 

Lucas  was  stupefied.  Never  had  he  seen  his  master 
so  expansive  or  so  generous. 

When  Nais  returned,  Madame  de  I'Estorade,  who 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  405 

had  been  admiring  herself  for  her  courage  in  showing 
displeasure  to  her  daughter  for  half  an  hour,  embraced 
her  as  if  they  were  meeting  after  an  absence  of  two 
years ;  after  which  they  started  for  the  Luxembourg, 
where  in  those  days  the  Horticultural  Society  held 
its  exhibitions. 


406  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 


VII. 

THE   WAY   TO    MANAGE   POLITICAL   INTRIGUES. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  audience  given  by  the  min- 
ister of  Public  Works  to  Monsieur  Octave  de  Camps, 
who  was  presented  by  the  Comte  de  I'Estorade,  an 
usher  entered  the  room,  and  gave  the  minister  the 
card  of  the  attorney-general.  Monsieur  Vinet,  and  that 
of  Monsieur  Maxime  de  Trailles. 

"Very  good,"  said  Rastignac;  '*say  to  those  gentle- 
men that  I  will  receive  them  in  a  few  moments." 

Shortly  after.  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  and  Monsieur 
de  Camps  rose  to  take  leave;  and  it  was  then  that 
Rastignac  very  succinctly  let  the  peer  know  of  the  dan- 
ger looming  on  the  horizon  of  his  friend  Sallenauve. 
Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  exclaimed  against  the  word 
friend. 

"I  don't  know,  my  dear  minister,"  he  said,  *'why 
you  insist  on  giving  that  title  to  a  man  who  is,  really 
and  truly,  a  mere  acquaintance,  and,  I  may  add,  a 
passing  acquaintance,  if  the  rumors  you  have  just 
mentioned  to  us  take  actual  shape." 

"I  am  glad  to  hear  you  say  that,"  said  the  minister, 
"because  the  friendly  relations  which  I  supposed  you 
to  hold  towards  him  would  have  embarrassed  me  a 
good  deal  in  the  hostilities  which  I  foresee  must  break 
out  between  him  and  the  government." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  407 

**Mo8t  grateful,  I  am  sure,  for  that  sentiment," 
replied  the  peer  of  France;  *'but  be  kind  enough  to 
remember  that  I  give  you  carte  blanche.  You  are 
free  to  handle  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  as  your  polit- 
ical enemy,  without  a  moment's  fear  of  troubling 
me." 

Thereupon  they  parted,  and  Messieurs  Vinet  and  de 
Trailles  were  introduced. 

The  attorney-general,  Vinet,  was  the  most  devoted 
and  the  most  consulted  champion  of  the  government 
among  its  various  officials.  In  a  possible  reconstitu- 
tion  of  the  ministry  he  was  obviously  the  candidate 
for  the  portfolio  of  justice.  Being  thoroughly  initi- 
ated into  all  the  business  of  that  position,  and  versed 
in  its  secret  dealings,  nothing  was  hatched  in  that 
department  on  which  he  was  not  consulted,  if  not 
actually  engaged.  The  electoral  matters  of  Arcis-sur- 
Aube  had  a  double  claim  to  his  interest,  partly  on 
account  of  his  wife,  a  Chargeboeuf  of  Brie,  and  a 
relative  of  the  Cinq-Cygnes,  but  chiefly  because  of 
the  office  held  by  his  son  in  the  local  administration. 
So  that  when,  earlier  in  the  morning.  Monsieur  de 
Trailles  carried  to  Rastignac  a  letter  from  Madame 
Beauvisage,  wife  of  the  defeated  governmental  candi- 
date, full  of  statements  injurious  to  the  new  deputy, 
the  minister  had  replied,  without  listening  to  any 
explanations,  — 

'*See  Vinet  about  it;  and  tell  him,  from  me,  to 
come  here  with  you." 

Notified  by  de  Trailles,  who  offered  to  fetch  him 
in  his  carriage,  Vinet  was  ready  enough  to  go  to  the 
minister;  and  now  that  we  find  the  three  together  in 


408  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

Rastignac's  study,  we  shall  be  likely  to  obtain  some 
better  knowledge  of  the  sort  of  danger  hanging  over 
Sallenauve's  head  than  we  gained  from  Jacques  Briche- 
teau's  or  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade's  very  insufficient 
information. 

"You  say,  my  dear  friends,"  said  the  minister, 
''that  we  can  win  a  game  against  that  puritan,  who 
seemed  to  me,  when  I  met  him  at  I'Estorade's  last 
evening,  to  be  an  out-and-out  enemy  to  the  govern- 
ment?" 

Admitted  to  this  interview  without  official  charac- 
ter, Maxime  de  Trailles  knew  life  too  well  to  take 
upon  himself  to  answer  this  query.  The  attorney- 
general,  on  the  contrary,  having  a  most  exalted  sense 
of  his  own  political  importance,  did  not  miss  the 
opportunity  to  put  himself  forward. 

"When  Monsieur  de  Trailles  communicated  to  me 
this  morning  a  letter  from  Madame  Beauvisage,"  he 
hastened  to  say,  "I  had  just  received  one  from  my 
son,  conveying  to  me  very  much  the  same  informa- 
tion. I  am  of  Monsieur  de  Trailles'  opinion,  that 
the  affair  may  become  very  serious  for  our  adversary, 
provided,  however,  that  it  is  well  managed." 

"I  know,  as  yet,  very  little  about  the  affair,"  re- 
marked the  minister.  "As  I  wished  for  your  opinion 
in  the  first  place,  my  dear  Vinet,  I  requested  Monsieur 
de  Trailles  to  postpone  his  explanation  of  its  details 
until  you  could  be  present  at  the  discussion." 

This  time  Maxime  was  plainly  authorized  and  even 
required  to  speak,  but  again  Vinet  stole  the  oppor- 
tunity. 

"Here  is  what  my  son  Olivier  writes  me,  and  it  is 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  409 

confirmed  by  the  letter  of  Madame  Beauvisage,  in 
whom,  be  it  said  in  passing,  my  dear  minister,  you 
have  lost  a  most  excellent  deputy.  It  appears  that 
on  the  last  market-day  Maitre  Antoine  Pigoult,  who 
is  left  in  charge  of  the  affairs  of  the  new  deputy, 
received  a  visit  from  a  peasant- woman  of  Rom  illy, 
a  large  village  in  the  neighborhood  of  Arcis.  The 
mysterious  father  of  the  deputy,  the  so-called  Marquis 
de  Sallenauve,  declared  himself  to  be  the  last  remain- ' 
ing  scion  of  the  family;  but  it  seems  that  this  woman 
produced  papers  in  due  form,  which  show  her  to  be  a 
Sallenauve  in  the  direct  line,  and  within  the  degree  of 
parentage  required  to  constitute  her  an  heir." 

''Was  she  as  ignorant  of  the  existence  of  the 
Marquis  de  Sallenauve  as  the  marquis  seems  to  have 
been  of  hers?"  asked  Rastignac. 

''That  does  not  clearly  appear  from  what  she  says," 
replied  the  attorney-general;  "but  it  might  so  happen 
among  relations  so  curiously  placed." 

"Go  on,  if  you  please,"  said  Rastignac;  "before 
we  draw  conclusions  we  must  know  the  facts,  which, 
as  you  are  aware,  is  not  always  done  in  the  Chamber 
of  deputies." 

"Fortunately,  sometimes,  for  the  ministers,"  re- 
marked Maxime,  laughing. 

'*  Monsieur  is  right,"  said  Vinet ;  "hail  to  the  man 
who  can  muddle  questions.  But  to  return  to  our 
peasant-woman.  Not  being  satisfied,  naturally,  with 
Maitre  Pigoult's  reception  of  her  news,  she  went  into 
the  market-square,,  and  there  by  the  help  of  a  legal 
practitioner  from  her  village,  who  seems  to  have  ac- 
companied her,  she  spread  about  reports  which   are 


410  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

very  damaging  to  my  worthy  colleague  in  the  Chamber. 
She  said,  for  instance,  that  it  was  not  true  that  the 
Marquis  de  Sallenauve  was  his  father;  that  it  was 
not  even  true  that  the  Marquis  de  Sallenauve  was  still 
living;  and  moreover  that  this  spurious  Sallenauve 
was  a  man  of  no  heart,  who  had  repudiated  his  real 
parents,  —  adding  that  she  could,  by  the  help  of  the 
able  man  who  accompanied  her,  compel  him  to  dis- 
gorge the  Sallenauve  property  and  '  clear  out'  of  the 
place." 

"I  have  no  objection  to  that,"  said  Rastignac; 
*'  but  this  woman  must,  of  course,  have  papers  to 
prove  her  allegations?  " 

*'That  is  the  weak  point  of  the  matter,"  replied 
Vinet.  "  But  let  me  go  on  with  my  story.  The  gov- 
ernment has  at  Arcis  a  most  intelligent  and  devoted 
functionary  in  the  commissary  of  police.  Circulating 
among  the  groups,  as  he  usually  does  on  market  days, 
he  heard  these  statements  of  the  peasant-woman,  and 
reported  them  at  once,  not  to  the  mayor,  who  might 
not  have  heeded  them,  but  to  Madame  Beauvisage." 

''' Ah  fa/"  said  Rastignac,  addressing  Maxime; 
*'  was  the  candidate  you  gave  us  such  a  dolt  as 
that?" 

''Just  the  man  you  needed,"  replied  Maxime, — 
''  silly  to  the  last  degree,  and  capable  of  being  wound 
round  anybody's  finger.  I'll  go  any  lengths  to  repair 
that  loss." 

''Madame  Beauvisage,"  continued  Vinet,  "wished 
to  speak  with  the  woman  herself,  and  she  ordered 
Groslier  —  that 's  the  commissary  of  police  —  to  fetch 
her  with  a  threatening  air  to  the  mayor's  office,  so  as 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  411 

to  give  her  an  idea  that  the  authorities  disapproved 
of  her  conduct." 

'*Did  Madame  Beauvisage  concoct  that  plan?" 
asked  Rastignac. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Maxime,  "  she  is  a  very  clever 
woman." 

"  Questioned  closely  by  the  mayoress,"  continued 
Vinet,  "  who  took  care  to  have  the  mayor  present,  the 
peasant- woman  was  far  from  categorical.  Her  grounds 
for  asserting  that  the  new  deputy  could  not  be  the  son 
of  the  marquis,  and  the  assurance  with  which  she 
stated  that  the  latter  had  long  been  dead  were  not,  as 
it  appears,  very  clearly  established ;  vague  rumors  and 
the  deductions  drawn  by  the  village  practitioner  seem 
to  be  all  there  was  to  them." 

' '  Then,"  said  Rastignac, ' '  what  does  all  this  lead  to  ?  " 

'*  Absolutely  nothing  from  a  legal  point  of  view," 
replied  the  attorney-general;  *'for  supposing  the 
woman  were  able  to  establish  the  fact  that  this  recog- 
nition of  the  said  Dorlange  was  a  mere  pretence,  she 
has  no  status  on  which  to  proceed  farther.  By  Article 
339  of  the  Civil  Code  direct  heirship  alone  has  the  right 
to  attack  the  recognition  of  natural  children." 

''  Your  balloon  is  collapsing  fast,"  said  the  minister. 

"  So  that  the  woman,"  continued  Vinet,  **  has  no 
object  in  proceeding,  for  she  can't  inherit ;  it  belongs 
to  the  government  to  pursue  the  case  of  supposition  of 
person;  she  can  do  no  more  than  denounce  the  fact." 

*'  From  which  you  conclude?"  said  Rastignac,  with 
that  curtness  of  speech  which  to  a  prolix  speaker  is  a 
warning  to  be  concise. 

'*  From  which  I  conclude,  judicially  speaking,  that 


412  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

the  Romilly  peasant-woman,  so  far  as  she  is  concerned, 
will  have  her  trouble  for  her  pains  ;  but,  speaking  po- 
litically, the  thing  takes  quite  another  aspect." 

"  Let  us  see  the  political  side,"  said  the  minister; 
"  up  to  this  point,  I  see  nothing." 

"  In  the  first  place,"  replied  the  attorney-general, 
"3^ou  will  admit  that  it  is  always  possible  to  bring  a 
bad  case?" 

''Certainly." 

"  And  I  don't  suppose  it  would  signify  much  to  you 
if  the  woman  did  embark  in  a  matter  in  which  she  can 
lose  nothing  but  her  costs  ?  " 

''  No,  I  assure  you  I  am  wholly  indifferent." 

''In  any  case,  I  should  have  advised  you  to  let 
things  take  their  course.  The  Beauvisage  husband 
and  wife  have  engaged  to  pay  the  costs  and  also  the 
expense  of  keeping  the  peasant-woman  and  her  counsel 
in  Paris  during  the  inquiry." 

"Then,"  said  Eastignac,  still  pressing  for  a  con- 
clusion, "  the  case  is  really  begun.  What  will  be  the 
result  ?  " 

"  What  will  be  the  result  ?  "  cried  the  attorney-gen- 
eral, getting  excited  ;  ' '  why,  anything  you  please  if, 
before  the  case  comes  for  trials  your  newspapers  com- 
ment upon  it,  and  your  friends  spread  reports  and  in- 
sinuations. What  will  result?  why,  an  immense  fall  in 
public  estimation  for  our  adversary  suspected  of  steal- 
ing a  name  which  does  not  belong  to  him  !  What  will 
result?  why,  the  opportunity  for  a  fierce  challenge  in 
the  Chamber." 

"Which  you  will  take  upon  yourself  to  make?" 
asked  Rastignac. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  413 

'*  Ah  !  I  don*t  know  about  that.  The  matter  would 
have  to  be  rather  more  studied,  and  the  turn  the  case 
might  take  more  certain,  if  I  had  anything  to  do 
with  it." 

*'  So,  for  the  present,"  remarked  the  minister,  ''the 
whole  thing  amounts  to  an  application  of  Basile*s 
famous  theory  about  calumny :  '  good  to  set  a-going, 
because  some  of  it  will  always  stick. ' " 

'*  Calumny !  "  exclaimed  Vinet,  "  that  remains  to  be 
seen.  Perhaps  a  good  round  of  gossip  is  all  that  can 
be  made  of  it.  Monsieur  de  Trailles,  here,  knows 
better  than  I  do  the  state  of  things  down  there.  He 
can  tell  you  that  the  disappearance  of  the  father 
immediately  after  the  recognition  had  a  bad  effect 
upon  people's  minds ;  and  every  one  in  Arcis  has  a 
vague  impression  of  secret  plotting  in  this  affair  of  the 
election.  You  don't  know,  my  dear  minister,  all  that 
can  be  made  in  the  provinces  of  a  judicial  affair  when 
adroitly  manipulated,  —  cooked,  as  I  may  say.  In  my 
long  and  laborious  career  at  the  bar  I  saw  plent}^  of 
that  kind  of  miracle.  But  a  parliamentary  debate  is 
another  thing.  In  that  there  *8  no  need  of  proof ;  one 
can  kill  one's  man  with  probabilities  and  assertions,  if 
hotly  maintained." 

"  But,  to  come  to  the  point,"  said  Rastignac,  "  how 
do  you  think  the  affair  ought  to  be  managed  ?  " 

''In  the  first  place,"  replied  Vinet,  "  I  should  leave 
the  Beauvisage  people  to  pay  all  costs  of  whatever 
kind,  inasmuch  as  they  propose  to  do  so." 

"  Do  I  oppose  that?  "  said  the  minister.  "  Have  I 
the  right  or  the  means  to  do  so  ?  '* 

'*  The  affair,"  continued  Vinet,  "  should  be  placed 


414  The  Dejputy  of  Areis. 

in  the  hands  of  some  capable  and  wily  solicitor,  like 
Desroches,  for  example,  Monsieur  de  Trailles'  lawyer. 
He  '11  know  how  to  put  flesh  on  the  bones  of  a  case 
you  justly  consider  rather  thin." 

''  Well,  it  is  certainly  not  my  place  to  say  to  Mon- 
sieur de  Trailles  or  any  man,  '  I  forbid  you  to  employ 
whom  you  will  as  your  solicitor.'  " 

*'  Then  we  need  some  pleader  who  can  talk  in  a 
moving  way  about  that  sacred  thing  the  Family,  and 
put  himself  into  a  state  of  indignation  about  these 
surreptitious  and  furtive  ways  of  entering  its  honored 
enclosure." 

"  Desroches  can  point  out  some  such  person  to  you. 
The  government  cannot  prevent  a  man  from  saying 
what  he  pleases." 

"But,"  interposed  Maxime,  who  was  forced  out  of 
his  passive  rdle  by  the  minister's  coldness,  "  is  not 
preventing  all  the  help  we  are  to  expect  in  this  affair 
from  the  government?" 

"  You  don't  expect  us,  I  hope,  to  take  this  m^atter 
upon  ourselves  ?  " 

"  No,  of  course  not ;  but  we  have  certainly  supposed 
that  you  would  take  some  interest  in  the  matter." 

' '  But  how  ?  —  in  what  way  ?  " 

"Well,  as  Monsieur  le  procureur  said  just  now,  by 
giving  a  hint  to  the  subsidized  newspapers,  by  stirring 
up  your  friends  to  spread  the  news,  by  using  a  certain 
influence  which  power  always  exerts  on  the  minds  of 
magistrates." 

"Thank  you,  no!"  replied  Rastignac.  "When 
you  want  the  government  for  an  accomplice,  my  dear 
Maxime,  you  must  provide  a  better-laid  plot  than  that. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  415 

From  your  manner  this  morning  I  supposed  there  was 
really  something  in  all  this,  and  so  I  ventured  to  dis- 
turb our  excellent  attorney-general,  who  knows  how  I 
value  his  advice.  But  really,  your  scheme  seems  to 
me  too  transparent  and  also  too  narrow  not  to  be 
doomed  to  inevitable  defeat.  If  I  were  not  married, 
and  could  pretend  to  the  hand  of  Mademoiselle  Beau- 
visage,  perhaps  I  should  feel  differently ;  of  course 
you  will  do  as  you  think  best.  I  do  not  say  that  the 
•^  government  will  not  wish  you  well  in  your  attempt,  but 
it  certainly  cannot  descend  to  make  it  with  you." 

''But  see,"  said  Vinet,  interposing  to  cut  off  Max- 
ime's  reply,  which  would  doubtless  have  been  bitter ; 
''  suppose  we  send  the  affair  to  the  criminal  courts, 
and  the  peasant- woman,  instigated  by  the  Beau  visage 
couple,  should  denounce  the  man  who  had  sworn 
before  a  notary,  and  offered  himself  for  election 
falsely,  as  a  Sallenauve :  the  question  is  one  for  the 
court  of  assizes." 

''But  proofs?  I  return  to  that,  you  must  have 
proof,"  said  Rastignac.  "Have  you  even  a  shadow 
of  it?" 

"You  said  yourself,  just  now,"  remarked  Maxime, 
"  that  it  was  always  possible  to  bring  a  bad  case." 

"A  civil  case,  yes;  but  to  fail  in  a  criminal  case 
is  a  far  more  serious  matter.  It  would  be  a  pretty 
thing  if  you  were  shown  not  to  have  a  leg  to  stand  on, 
and  the  case  ended  in  a  decision  of  non-lieu.  You 
could  n't  find  a  better  way  to  put  our  enemy  on  a 
pedestal  as  high  as  the  column  of  July." 

"So,"  said  Maxime,  "you  see  absolutely  nothing 
that  can  be  done?" 


416  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

''For  us,  no.  For  you,  my  dear  Maxime,  who 
have  no  official  character,  and  who,  if  need  be,  can 
support  the  attack  on  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  pistol 
in  hand,  as  it  were,  nothing  hinders  you  from  pro- 
ceeding in  the  matter." 

''Oh,  yes!"  said  Maxime,  bitterly,  "I'm  a  sort 
of  free  lance." 

"Not  at  all;  you  are  a  man  intuitively  convinced 
of  facts  impossible  to  prove  legally,  and  you  do  not 
give  way  before  the  judgment  of  God  or  man." 

Monsieur  de  Trailles  rose  angrily.  Vinet  rose  also, 
and,  shaking  hands  with  Rastignac  as  he  took  leave  of 
him,  he  said,  — 

"  I  don't  deny  that  your  course  is  a  prudent  one, 
and  I  don't  say  that  in  your  place  I  should  not  do  the 
same  thing." 

"Adieu,  Maxime  ;  without  bitterness,  I  hope,"  said 
Rastignac  to  Monsieur  de  Trailles,  who  bowed  coldly 
and  with  dignity. 

When  the  two  conspirators  were  alone  in  the  ante- 
chamber, Maxime  turned  to  his  companion. 

"Do  you  understand  such  squeamishness ? "  he 
asked. 

"  Perfectly,"  replied  Vinet,  "  and  I  wonder  to  see  a 
clever  man  like  you  so  duped." 

"  Yes,  duped  to  make  you  lose  your  time  and  I  mine 
by  coming  here  to  listen  to  a  lecture  on  virtue !  " 

"  That 's  not  it ;  but  I  do  think  you  guileless  to  be 
taken  in  by  that  refusal  to  co-operate." 

"What!  doyou  think— " 

"  I  think  that  this  affair  is  risky  ;  if  it  succeeds,  the 
government,  arms  folded,  will  reap  the  benefit.     But 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  417 

if  on  the  contrary  we  fail,  it  will  not  take  a  share  in 
the  defeat.  But  you  may  be  sure  of  this,  for  I  know 
Rastignac  well :  without  seeming  to  know  anything, 
and  without  compromising  himself  in  any  way,  he  will 
help  us,  and  perhaps  more  usefully  than  by  open  conniv- 
ance. Think  !  did  he  say  a  single  word  on  the  morality 
of  the  affair?  Did  n't  he  say,  again  and  again,  *  I  dou't 
oppose  —  I  have  no  right  to  prevent '  ?  And  as  to  the 
venom  of  the  case,  the  only  fault  he  found  was  that  it 
was  n't  sure  to  kill.  But  in  truth,  my  dear  monsieur, 
this  is  going  to  be  a  hard  pull,  and  we  shall  want  all 
the  cleverness  of  that  fellow  Desroches  to  get  us 
through." 

' '  Then  you  think  T  had  better  see  him  ?  " 

"  Better  see  him  !  why,  my  good  friend,  you  ought 
to  go  to  him  at  once." 

**  Would  n't  it  be  better  if  he  talked  with  you?  " 

''Oh!  no,  no!  "  exclaimed  Vinet.  ''I  may  be  the 
man  to  put  the  question  in  the  Chamber;  and  if 
Desroches  were  seen  with  me,  I  should  lose  my 
virginity." 

So  saying,  he  took  leave  of  Maxime  with  some  haste, 
on  the  ground  that  he  ought  then  to  be  at  the  Chamber. 

''  But  I,"  said  Maxime,  running  after  him,  —  "  sup- 
pose I  wanted  to  consult  you  in  the  matter?  " 

'*  I  leave  to-night  for  my  district,  to  get  things  into 
order  before  the  opening  of  the  new  session." 

"  But  about  bringing  up  the  question  which  you  say 
may  devolve  on  you?  " 

''I  or  another.  I  will  hasten  back  as  soon  as  I 
can ;  but  you  understand,  I  must  put  my  department 
in  order  for  a  six  months*  absence." 

27 


418  The  De;puty  of  Arcis. 

"  A  good  journey  to  you,  then,  Monsieur  le  procu- 
reur-general,"  replied  Maxime,  sarcastically. 

Left  to  himself,  Monsieur  de  Trailles  had  a  period 
of.  discouragement,  resulting  from  the  discovery  that 
these  two  political  Bertrands  meant  that  his  paw  should 
pull  the  chestnuts  from  the  fire.  Rastignac's  be- 
havior particularly  galled  him.  His  mind  went  back 
to  their  first  interview  at  Madame  Restaud's,  twenty 
years  earlier,  wlien  he  himself  held  the  sceptre  of 
fashion,  and  Rastignac,  a  poor  student,  neither  knew 
how  to  come  into  a  room  nor  how  to  leave  it.  [See 
"  Pere  Goriot."]  And  now  Rastignac  was  peer  of 
France  and  minister,  while  he,  Maxime,  become  his 
agent,  was  obliged  with  folded  arms  to  hear  himself 
told  that  his  plot  was  weak  and  he  must  carry  it  out 
alone,  if  at  all. 

But  this  discouragement  did  not  last. 

''  Yes !  "  he  cried  to  himself,  "  I  imll  carry  it  out; 
my  instinct  tells  me  there  is  something  in  it.  What 
nonsense!  —  a  Dorlange,  a  nobody,  to  attempt  to 
checkmate  Maxime  de  Trailles  and  make  a  stepping- 
stone  of  my  defeat !  To  my  solicitor's,"  he  said  to  the 
coachman,  opening  tlie  door  of  the  carriage  himself. 

Desroches  was  at  home ;  and  Monsieur  de  Trailles 
was  immediately  admitted  to  his  study. 

Desroches  was  a  lawyer  who  had  had,  like  Raffaelle, 
several  manners.  First,  possessor  of  a  practice  with- 
out clients,  he  had  made  fish  of  every  case  that  came 
into  his  net ;  and  he  felt  himself,  in  consequence,  little 
respected  by  the  court.  But  he  was  a  hard  worker, 
well  versed  in  all  the  ins  and  outS  of  chicanery,  a  keen 
observer,  and  an  intelligent  reader  of  the  movements  of 


The  Deputy  of  Areis,  419 

the  human  heart.  Consequently  he  had  made  for  him- 
self, in  course  of  time,  a  very  good  practice ;  he  had 
married  a  rich  woman,  and  the  moment  that  he  thought 
himself  able  to  do  without  crooked  ways  he  had 
seriously  renounced  them.  In  1839  Desroches  had 
become  an  honest  and  skilful  solicitor :  that  is  to  say, 
he  assumed  the  interests  of  his  clients  with  warmth  and 
ability ;  he  never  counselled  an  openly  dishonorable 
proceeding,  still  less  would  he  have  lent  a  hand  to  it. 
As  to  that  fine  flower  of  delicacy  to  be  met  with  in 
Derville  and  some  others  like  him,  besides  the  sad  fact 
that  it  is  difficult  to  keep  its  fragrance  from  evaporating 
in  this  business  world  of  which  Monsieur  de  Talleyrand 
says,  "  Business  means  getting  the  property  of  others," 
it  is  certain  that  it  can  never  be  added  to  any  second 
state  of  existence.  The  loss  of  that  bloom  of  the  soul, 
like  that  of  other  virginities,  is  irreparable.  Desroches 
had  not  aspired  to  restore  it  to  himself.  He  no  longer 
risked  anything  ignoble  or  dishonest,  but  the  good 
tricks  admitted  by  the  code  of  procedure,  the  good 
traps,  the  good  treacheries  which  could  be  legitimately 
played  off  upon  an  adversary,  he  was  very  ready  to 
undertake. 

Desroches  was  moreover  a  man  of  i)arts  and  witty ; 
loving  the  pleasures  of  the  table,  and  like  all  men  per- 
petually the  slaves  of  imperious  toil,  he  felt  the 
need  of  vigorous  amusement,  taken  on  the  wing  and 
highly  spiced.  While  purifying  after  a  fashion  his 
judicial  life,  he  still  continued  the  legal  adviser  of 
artists,  men  of  letters,  actresses,  courtesans,  and 
elegant  bohemians  like  Maxime  de  Trailles,  because  he 
liked  to  live  their  life ;  they  were  sympathetic  to  him 


420  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

as  he  to  them.  Their  witty  argot,  their  easy  morals, 
their  rather  loose  adventures,  their  expedients,  their 
brave  and  honorable  toil,  in  a  word,  their  greatness  and 
their  weakness,  —  he  understood  it  all  marvellously  well ; 
and,  like  an  ever-indulgent  providence,  he  lent  them 
his  aid  whenever  they  asked  for  it.  But  in  order  to  con- 
ceal from  his  dignified  and  more  valuable  clients  what- 
ever might  be  compromising  in  the  clientele  ha  really 
preferred,  Desroches  had  his  days  of  domesticity  when 
he  was  husband  and  father,  especially  on  Sunda3^s. 
He  appeared  in  the  Bois  de  Boulogne  in  a  modest 
caleche  beside  his  wife  (whose  ugliness  revealed  the 
size  of  her  dot),  with  three  children  on  the  front  seat, 
who  were  luckless  enough  to  resemble  their  mother. 
This  family  picture,  these  virtuous  dominical  habits, 
recalled  so  little  the  week-day  Desroches,  dining  in 
cafes  with  all  the  male  and  female  viveurs  of  renown, 
that  one  of  them,  Malaga,  a  circus-rider,  famous  for 
her  wit  and  vim,  remarked  that  lawyers  ought  not  to 
be  allowed  to  masquerade  in  that  way  and  deceive  the 
public  with  fictitious  family  joys. 

It  was  to  this  relative  integrity  that  de  Trailles 
now  went  for  counsel,  as  he  never  failed  to  do  in  all 
the  many  difficulties  he  encountered  in  life.  Follow- 
ing a  good  habit,  Desroches  listened,  without  inter- 
rupting, to  the  long  explanation  of  the  case  submitted 
to  him.  As  Maxime  hid  nothing  from  this  species 
of 'confessor,  he  gave  his  reasons  for  wishing  to  injure 
Sallenauve,  representing  him,  in  all  good  faith,  as 
having  usurped  the  name  under  which  he  was  elected 
to  the  Chamber,  —  his  hatred  making  him  take  the 
possibility  for  positive  evidence. 


Tlie  Deputy  of  Arcis.  421 

In  his  heart,  Desroches  did  not  wish  to  take  charge 
of  an  affair  in  which  he  saw  not  the  slightest  chance 
of  success ;  but  he  showed  his  lax  integrity  by  talking 
over  the  affair  with  his  client  as  if  it  were  an  ordinary 
case  of  legal  practice,  instead  of  telling  him  frankly 
his  opinion  that  this  pretended  *'case"  was  a  mere 
intrigue.  The  number  of  things  done  in  the  domain 
of  evil  by  connivance  in  speech,  without  proceeding 
to  the  actual  collusion  of  action,  are  incalculable. 

*'In  the  first  place,"  said  Desroches,  when  the 
matter  was  all  explained,  "a  civil  suit  is  not  to  be 
thought  of.  Your  Romilly  peasant-woman  might  have 
her  hands  full  of  proofs,  but  she  has  no  ground  herself 
to  stand  upon ;  she  has  no  legal  interest  in  contesting 
the  rights  of  this  recognized  natural  son." 

"Yes,  that  is  what  Vinet  said  just  now." 

"As  for  the  criminal  case,  you  could,  no  doubt, 
compel  it  by  giving  information  to  the  police  author- 
ities of  this  alleged  imposture  —  " 

"Vinet,"  interrupted  Maxime,  "inclined  to  the 
criminal  proceeding." 

"Yes,  but  there  are  a  great  many  objections  to 
it.  In  the  first  place,  in  order  that  the  complaint  be 
received  at  all,  you  must  produce  a  certain  amount  of 
proof;  then,  supposing  it  is  received,  and  the  author- 
ities are  determined  to  pursue  the  case,  you  must  have 
more  evidence  of  criminality  than  you  have  now; 
and,  moreover,  supposing  that  you  can  show  that  the 
so-called  Marquis  de  Sallenauve  committed  a  fraud, 
how  will  you  prove  that  the  so-called  son  was  privy 
to  it?  He  might  have  been  the  dupe  of  some  political 
schemer." 


422  The  Deputy  of  Areis, 

''But  what  interest  could  such  a  schemer  have  in 
giving  Dorlange  the  many  advantages  he  has  derived 
from  the  recognition?  " 

"Ah!  my  dear  fellow,  in  political  matters  all  queer 
proceedings  are  possible;  there  is  no  such  fertile 
source  for  compilers  of  causes  celebres  and  novelists. 
In  the  eyes  of  the  law,  you  must  remember,  the  coun- 
terfeiting of  a  person  is  not  always  a  crime." 

"How  so?"  asked  Maxime. 

"Here,"  said  Desroches,  taking  up  the  Five  Codes; 
"do  me  the  favor  to  read  Article  5  of  the  Penal  Code, 
the  only  one  which  gives  an  opening  to  the  case  you 
have  in  mind." 

Maxime  read  aloud  the  article,  which  was  as 
follows :  — 

"  '  Any  functionary  or  public  officer  who,  in  the 
exercise  of  his  functions,  shall  commit  forgery  —  either 
by  false  signatures,  by  alteration  of  deeds,  writings, 
or  signatures,  or  by  counterfeiting  persons  —  '  There, 
you  see,"  said  Maxime,  interrupting  himself,  — "by 
counterfeiting  persons  — '  " 

"Go  on,"  insisted  Desroches. 

"'  — by  counterfeiting  persons,'"  resumed  de 
Trailles,  "  *  either  by  writings  made  or  intercalated 
in  the  public  records  or  other  documents,  shall  be 
punished  by  imprisonment  at  hard  labor  for  life." 

Maxime  lingered  lovingly  on  the  last  words,  which 
gave  his  revenge  a  foretaste  of  the  fate  that  awaited 
Sallenauve. 

"My  dear  count,"  said  Desroches,  "you  do  as  the 
barristers  do;  they  read  to  the  jury  only  so  much  of  a 
legal  document  as  suits  their  point  of  view.     You  pay 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  423 

no  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  only  persons  affected 
by  this  article  ^vq  functionaries  ov public  officers.''^ 

Maxime  re-read  the  article,  and  convinced  himself 
of  the  truth  of  that  remark. 

''But,"  he  objected,  ''there  must  be  something  else- 
where about  such  a  crime  when  committed  by  private 
individuals." 

"No,  there  is  not;  you  can  trust  my  knowledge  of 
jurisprudence,  —  the  Code  is  absolutely  silent  in  that 
direction." 

"Then  the  crime  we  wish  to  denounce  can  be  com- 
mitted with  impunity  ?  " 

"Its  repression  is  always  doubtful,"  replied  Des- 
roches.  "Judges  do  sometimes  make  up  for  the 
deficiency  of  the  Code  in  this  respect.  Here,"  he 
added,  turning  over  the  leaves  of  a  book  of  reference, 
—  "here  are  two  decisions  of  the  court  of  assizes, 
reported  in  Carnot's  Commentary  on  the  Penal  Code: 
one  of  July  7,  1814,  the  other  April  24,  1818,  —  both 
confirmed  by  the  court  of  appeals,  which  condemn  for 
forgery,  by  '  counterfeiting  persons,*  individuals  who 
were  neither  functionaries  nor  public  officers:  but 
these  decisions,  unique  in  law,  rest  on  the  authority 
of  an  article  in  which  the  crime  they  punish  is  not 
even  mentioned;  and  it  is  only  by  elaborate  reason- 
ing that  they  contrived  to  make  this  irregular  applica- 
tion of  it.  You  can  understand,  therefore,  how  very 
doubtful  the  issue  of  such  a  case  would  be,  because  in 
the  absence  of  positive  rule  you  can  never  tell  how  the 
magistrates  might  decide." 

"Consequently,  your  opinion,  like  Rastignac's,  is 
that  we  had  better  send  our  peasant- woman  back  to 
Romilly  and  drop  the  whole  matter?  " 


424  The  Deputy  of  Areis, 

*'There  is  always  something  to  be  done  if  one  knows 
how  to  set  about  it,"  replied  Desroches.  "  There  is 
a  point  that  neither  you  nor  Rastignac  nor  Vinet 
seems  to  have  thought  of ;  and  that  is,  to  proceed  in  a 
criminal  case  against  a  member  of  the  national  repre- 
sentation, except  for  flagrant  crime,  requires  the  con- 
sent and  authority  of  the  Chamber." 

"True,"  said  Maxime,  "but  I  don't  see  how  a  new 
difficulty  is  going  to  help  us." 

"You  would  n't  be  sorry  to.  send  your  adversary  to 
the  galleys,"  said  Desroches,  laughing. 

"A  villain,"  added  Maxime,  "who  may  make  me 
lose  a  rich  marriage;  a  fellow  who  poses  for  stern 
virtue,  and  then  proceeds  to  trickery  of  this  kind ! " 

"Well,  you  must  resign  yourself  to  a  less  glorious 
result;  but  you  can  make  a  pretty  scandal,  and 
destroy  the  reputation  of  your  man;  and  that  ought, 
it  seems  to  me,  to  serve  your  ends." 

"Of  course,  —  better  that  than  nothing." 

"Well,  then,  here  's  what  I  advise.  Don't  let  your 
peasant-woman  lodge  her  complaint  before  the  crim- 
inal court,  but  make  her  place  in  the  hands  of  the 
president  of  the  Chamber  of  deputies  a  simple  request 
for  permission  to  proceed.  Probably  the  permission 
will  not  be  granted,  and  the  affair  will  have  to  stop  afc 
that  stage;  but  the  matter  being  once  made  known 
will  circulate  through  the  Chambers,  the  newspapers 
will  get  hold  of  it  and  make  a  stir,  and  the  ministry, 
suh  rosa,  can  envenom  the  vague  accusation  through 
its  friends." 

^^Parbleu!  my  dear  fellow,"  cried  Maxime,  de- 
lighted to  find  a  way  open  to  his  hatred,  "you  've  a 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  425 

strong  head,  —  stronger  than  that  of  these  so-called 
statesmen.  But  this  request  for  permission  addressed 
to  the  president  of  the  Chamber,  who  is  to  draw  it  up?  " 

**0h!  not  I,"  said  Desroches,  who  did  not  wish  to 
mix  himself  up  any  farther  in  this  low  intrigue.  "It 
isn't  legal  assistance  that  you  want;  this  is  simply 
firing  your  first  gun,  and  I  don't  undertake  that  busi- 
ness. But  you  can  find  plenty  of  briefless  barristers 
always  ready  to  put  their  finger  in  the  political  pie. 
Massol,  for  instance,  can  draw  it  up  admirably.  But 
you  must  not  tell  him  that  the  idea  came  from  me." 

"Oh!  as  for  that,"  said  Maxime,  "I'll  take  it  all 
on  my  own  shoulders.  Perhaps  in  this  form  Rastignac 
may  come  round  to  the  project." 

"Yes,  but  take  care  you  don't  make  an  enemy  of 
Vinet,  who  will  think  you  very  impertinent  to  have  an 
idea  which  ought,  naturally,  to  have  come  into  the 
head  of  so  great  a  parliamentary  tactician  as  himself." 

*'Well,  before  long,"  said  Maxime,  rising,  ''I  hope 
to  bring  the  Vinets  and  Rastignacs,  and  others  like 
them,  to  heel.  Where  do  you  dine  this  evening?  "  he 
added. 

That  is  a  question  which  men  about  town  often 
address  to  each  other. 

"In  a  cave,"  replied  Desroches,  "with  a  band." 

"Where's  that?" 

"I  suppose,  in  the  course  of  your  erotic  existence, 
you  have  had  recourse  to  the  good  oflfices  of  a  certain 
Madame  de  Saint-Est^ve?  " 

"No,"  replied  Maxime,  "I  have  always  done  my 
own  business  in  that  line." 

"True,"  said  Desroches,  "you  conquer  in  the  upper 


426  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

ranks,  where,  as  a  general  thing,  they  don't  use  go- 
betweens.  But,  at  any  rate,  you  have  heard  of 
Madame  de  Saint-Esteve?  " 

"Of  course;  her  establishment  is  in  the  rue  Neuve- 
Saint-Marc,  and  it  was  she  who  got  that  pot  of  money 
out  of  Nucingen  for  La  Torpille.  Isn't  she  some 
relation  to  the  chief  of  the  detective  police,  who  bears 
the  same  name,  and  used  to  be  one  of  the  same  kind 
as  herself  ?  " 

"I  don't  know  about  that,"  said  Desroches,  "but 
what  I  can  tell  you  is  that  in  her  business  as  pro- 
curess —  as  it  was  called  in  days  less  decorous  than 
our  own  —  the  worthy  woman  has  made  a  fortune,  and 
now,  without  any  serious  change  of  occupation,  she 
lives  magnificently  in  the  rue  de  Provence,  where  she 
carries  on  the  business  of  a  matrimonial  agency." 

"Is  that  where  you  are  going  to  dine?"  asked 
Maxime. 

"Yes,  with  the  director  of  the  London  opera-house, 
Emile  Blondet,  Finot,  Lousteau,  Felicien  Vernon, 
Theodore  Gaillard,  Hector  Merlin,  and  Bixiou,  who 
was  commissioned  to  invite  me,  as  it  seems  they  are 
in  want  of  my  experience  and  capacity  for  business  !  " 

"^A  ga!  then  there  's  some  financial  object  in  this 
dinner?" 

"No;  it  merely  concerns  a  theatrical  venture,  — the 
engagement  of  a  prima  donna ;  and  they  want  to  sub- 
mit the  terms  of  the  contract  to  my  judgment.  You. 
understand  that  the  rest  of  the  guests  are  invited  to 
trumpet  the  affair  as  soon  as  the  papers  are  signed." 

"Who  is  the  object  of  all  this  preparation?  " 

"Oh!  a   star^ — destined,    they   say,   to   European 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  427 

> 
success;  an  Italian,  discovered  by  a  Swedish  noble- 
man, Comte  Halphertius,  through  the  medium  of 
Madame  de  Saint-Est^ve.  The  illustrious  manager 
of  the  London  opera-house  is  negotiating  this  treaty 
in  order  that  she  shall  make  her  first  appearance  at 
his  theatre." 

"Well,  adieu,  my  dear  fellow;  a  pleasant  dinner," 
said  Maxime,  preparing  to  depart.  *'If  your  star 
shines  in  London,  it  will  probably  appear  in  our  fir- 
mament next  winter.  As  for  me,  I  must  go  and 
attend  to  the  sunrise  in  Arcis.  By  the  bye,  where 
does  Massol  live?" 

''Faith!  I  could  n't  tell  you  that.  I  never  myself 
trust  him  with  a  case,  for  T  will  not  employ  barristers 
who  dabble  in  politics.  But  you  can  get  his  address 
from  the  '  Gazette  des  Tribuneaux ; '  he  is  one  of 
their  reporters." 

Maxime  went  to  the  oflSce  of  that  newspaper;  but, 
probably  on  account  of  creditors,  the  oflSce  servant 
had  express  orders  not  to  give  the  barrister's  address, 
so  that,  in  spite  of  his  arrogant,  imperious  manner, 
Monsieur  de  Trailles  obtained  no  information.  Hap- 
pily, he  bethought  him  that  he  frequently  saw  Massol 
at  the  Opera,  and  he  resolved  to  seek  him  there  that 
evening.  Before  going  to  dinner,  he  went  to  the  lodg- 
ings in  the  rue  Montmartre,  where  he  had  installed 
the  Romilly  peasant-woman  and  her  counsel,  whom 
Madame  Beauvisage  had  already  sent  to  Paris.  He 
found  them  at  dinner,  making  the  most  of  the  Beau- 
visage  funds,  and  he  gave  them  an  order  to  come  to 
his  apartment  the  next  day  at  half-past  eleven  with- 
out breakfasting. 


428  The  Deputy  of  Areis. 

In  the  evening  he  found  Massol,  as  he  expected,  at 
the  opera-house.  Going  up  to  the  lawyer  with  the 
slightly  insolent  manner  which  was  natural  to  him, 
he  said,  — 

"Monsieur,  I  have  an  affair,  half  legal,  half  polit- 
ical, which  I  desire  to  talk  over  with  you.  If  it  did 
not  demand  a  certain  amount  of  secrecy,  I  would  go  to 
your  office,  but  I  think  we  could  talk  with  more  safety 
in  my  own  apartment;  where,  moreover,  I  shall  be 
able  to  put  you  in  communication  with  other  persons 
concerned  in  the  affair.  May  I  hope  that  to-morrow 
morning,  at  eleven  o'clock,  you  will  do  me  the  favor 
to  take  a  cup  of  tea  with  me?  " 

If  Massol  had  had  an  office,  he  might  possibly  not 
have  consented,  for  the  sake  of  his  legal  dignity,  to 
reverse  the  usual  order  of  things ;  but  as  he  perched 
rather  than  lodged  in  any  particular  place,  he  was 
glad  of  an  arrangement  which  left  his  abode,  if  he 
had  any,  incognito. 

"I  shall  have  the  honor  to  be  with  you  at  the  horn- 
named, "  he  replied  ceremoniously. 

"Rue  Pigalle,"  said  Maxime,  "No.  6." 

"Yes,  I  know,"  returned  Massol, — "a  few  steps 
from  the  corner  of  the  rue  de  la  Rochefoucauld." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  429 


vni. 

SOME    OLD    ACQUAINTANCES. 

A  FEW  evenings  after  the  one  on  which  Sallenauve 
and  Marie-Gaston  had  taken  Jacques  Bricheteau  to 
Saint-Sulpice  to  hear  the  Signora  Luigia's  voice,  the 
church  was  the  scene  of  a  curious  little  incident  that 
passed  almost  wholly  unperceived.  A  young  man  en- 
tered hastily  by  a  side-door  ;  he  seemed  agitated,  and  so 
absorbed  in  some  anxiety  that  he  forgot  to  remove 
his  hat.  The  beadle  caught  him  by  the  arm,  and  his 
face  became  livid,  but,  turning  round,  he  saw  at  once 
that  his  fears  were  causeless. 

"  Is  your  hat  glued  on  your  head,  young  man?  "  said 
the  beadle,  pompously. 

'*  Oh,  pardon  me,  monsieur,"  he  replied,  snatching 
it  off ;  ^*  I  forgot  myself." 

Then  he  slipped  into  the  thickest  of  the  crowd  and 
disappeared. 

A  few  seconds  after  the  irruption  of  this  youth  the 
same  door  gave  access  to  a  man  around  whose  power- 
ful, seamed  face  was  the  collar  of  a  white  beard,  which, 
combined  with  a  thick  shock  of  hair,  also  white  but 
slightly  reddish  in  tone  and  falling  almost  to  his 
shoulders,  gave  him  very  much  the  air  of  an  old  Con- 
ventional, or  a  Bernardin  de  Saint-Pierre  who  liad  had 
the  small-pox.  His  face  and  his  hair  placed  him  in 
the  sixties,  but  his  robust  figure,  the  energetic  decision 


430  The  Deputy  of  Ar 


CIS, 


of  his  movements,  and,  above  all,  the  piercing  keen- 
ness of  the  glance  which  he  cast  about  him  on  enter- 
ing the  church,  showed  a  powerful  organization  on 
which  the  passage  of  years  had  made  little  or  no  im- 
pression. No  doubt,  he  was  in  search  of  the  young 
fellow  who  had  preceded  him ;  but  he  did  not  commit 
the  mistake  of  entering  the  crowd,  where  he  knew  of 
course  that  the  youth  had  lost  himself.  Like  a  prac- 
tised hunter,  he  saw  that  pursuit  was  useless,  and  he 
was  just  about  to  leave  the  church  when,  after  a  short 
organ  prelude,  the  contralto  of  the  signora  delivering 
its  solemn  notes  gave  forth  that  glorious  harmony  to 
which  is  sung  the  Litany  of  the  Virgin.  The  beauty 
of  the  voice,  the  beauty  of  the  chant,  the  beauty  of 
the  words  of  the  sacred  hymn,  which  the  fine  method 
of  the  singer  brought  out  distuictly,  made  a  singular 
impression  on  the  stalwart  stranger.  Instead  of  leav- 
ing the  church,  he  put  himself  in  the  shadow  of  a 
column,  against  which  he  leaned  as  he  stood;  but  as 
the  last  notes  of  the  divine  canticle  died  away  among 
the  arches  of  the  church,  he  knelt  on  the  pavement, 
and  whoever  had  chanced  to  look  that  way  would  have 
seen  two  heavy  tears  rolling  slowly  down  his  cheeks. 
The  benediction  given,  and  the  crowd  dispersing,  he 
rose,  wiped  his  eyes,  and,  muttering,  "  What  a  fool  I 
am!"  left  the  church.  Then  he  went  to  the  Place 
Saint-Sulpice,  and,  beckoning  to  a  coach  on  the  stand, 
he  said  to  the  driver,  — 

"Rue  de  Provence,  my  man,  quick!  there's  fat 
in  it." 

Reaching  the  house,  he  went  rapidly  up  the  stairway, 
and  rang  at  the  door  of  an  apartment  on  the  first  floor. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  431 

*'I8  my  aunt  at  home?"  he  inquired  of  the  negro 
who  opened  it.  Then  he  followed  the  man,  and  was 
presently  ushered  into  a  salon  where  the  negro  an- 
nounced, — 

"  Monsieur  de  Saint-Esteve." 

The  salon  which  the  famous  chief  of  the  detective 
police  now  entered  was  remarkable  for  the  luxury,  but 
still  more  for  the  horribly  bad  taste,  of  its  appoint- 
ments. Three  women  of  advanced  age  were  seated 
round  a  card-table  earnestly  employed  in  a  game  of 
dominoes.  Three  glasses  and  an  empty  silver  bowl 
which  gave  forth  a  vinous  odor  showed  that  the  wor- 
ship of  double-sixes  was  not  without  its  due  libations. 

"  Good-evening,  mesdames,"  said  the  chief  of  police, 
sitting  down;  **for  I  have  something  to  sax  to  each 
of  you."  '■ 

*'  We  '11  listen  presently,"  said  his  aunt ;  ''  you  can't 
interrupt  the  game.  It  won't  be  long;  I  play  for 
four." 

"  White  all  round  !  "  said  one  of  the  hags. 

"  Domino!  "  cried  the  Saint-Esteve.  *'  I  win  ;  you 
have  four  points  between  you  two,  and  the  whites  are 
all  out.  Well,  my  dear,  what  is  it?  "  she  said,  turning 
to  her  nephew,  after  a  rather  stormy  reckoning  among 
the  witches  was  over. 

'*You,  Madame  Fontaine,"  said  the  chief  of  police, 
addressing  one  of  the  venerable  beings,  whose  head 
was  covered  with  disorderly  gray  hair  and  a  battered 
green  bonnet,  —  *'you  neglect  your  duty ;  you  have  sent 
me  no  report,  and,  on  the  contrary,  I  get  many  com- 
plaints of  you.  The  prefect  has  a  great  mind  to  close 
your  establishment.     I  protect  you  on  account  of  the 


432  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

services  you  are  supposed  to  render  us ;  but  if  you 
don't  render  them,  I  warn  you,  without  claiming 
any  gifts  of  prediction,  that  your  fate-shop  will  be 
shut  up." 

"There  now!"  replied  the  pythoness,  ''you  pre- 
vented me  from  hiring  Mademoiselle  Lenormand's 
apartment  in  the  rue  de  Tournon,  and  how  can  you 
expect  me  to  make  reports  about  the  cooks  and  clerks 
and  workmen  and  grisettes  who  are  all  I  get  where  I 
am  ?  If  you  had  let  me  work  among  the  great  folks, 
I  'd  make  you  reports  and  plenty  of  them." 

"I  don't  see  how  you  can  say  that,  Madame  Fon- 
taine," said  Madame  de  Saint-Esteve.  "I  am  sure  I 
send  you  all  my  clients.  It  was  only  the  other  day," 
continuQ^  the  matrimonial  agent,  ' '  I  sent  you  that 
Italian  singer,  living  with  a  deputy  who  is  against  the 
government ;  why  did  n't  you  report  about  that  ?  " 

"There's  another  thing,"  said  the  chief  of  police, 
"  which  appears  in  several  of  the  complaints  that  I  re- 
ceived about  you,  —  that  nasty  animal  —  " 

"  What,  Astaroth?  "  said  Madame  Fontaine. 

"  Yes,  that  batrachian,  that  toad,  to  come  down  to 
his  right  name.  It  seems  he  nearly  killed  a  woman 
who  was  pregnant  —  " 

"  Well,  well,"  interrupted  the  sorceress,  "  if  I  am  to 
tell  fortunes  alone,  you  might  as  well  guillotine  me  at 
once.  Because  a  fool  of  a  woman  lay-in  with  a  dead 
child,  must  toads  be  suppressed  in  nature?  Why  did 
God  make  them  ?  " 

"My  dear  woman,"  said  the  chief,  "  did  you  never 
hear  that  in  1617  a  learned  man  was  put  to  death  for 
having  a  toad  in  a  bottle?" 


The  Deputy  of  Areis.  433 

"  Yes,  I  know  that ;  but  we  are  not  in  those  light 
ages,''  replied  Madame  Fontaine,  facetiously. 

'*  As  for  you,  Madame  Nourrisson,  the  complaint  is 
that  you  gather  your  fruit  unripe.  You  ought  to  know 
by  tliis  time  the  laws  and  regulations,  and  I  warn  you 
that  everything  under  twenty-one  years  of  age  is  for- 
bidden. I  wonder  I  have  to  remind  you  of  it.  Now, 
aunt,  what  I  have  to  say  to  you  is  confidential." 

Thus  dismissed,  two  of  the -Fates  departed. 

Since  the  days  when  Jacques  Collin  had  abdicated 
his  former  kingship  and  had  made  himself,  as  they  say, 
a  new  skin  in  the  police  force,  Jacqueline  Collin,  tliough 
she  had  never  put  herself  within  reach  of  the  law,  had 
certainly  never  donned  the  robe  of  innocence.  But 
having  attained,  like  her  nephew,  to  what  might  fairly  be 
called  opulence,  she  kept  at  a  safe  and  respectful  dis- 
tance from  the  Penal  Code,  and  under  cover  of  an 
agency  that  was  fairly  avowable,  she  sheltered  practices 
more  or  less  shady,  on  which  she  continued  to  bestow  an 
intelligence  and  an  activity  that  were  really  infernal. 

"Aunt,"  said  Vautrin,  *'I  have  so  many  things  to 
say  to  you  that  I  don't  know  where  to  begin." 

**  I  should  think  so!  It  is  a  week  since  I've  seen 
you." 

*'  In  the  first  place,  I  must  tell  you  that  1  have  just 
missed  a  splendid  chance." 

*'  What  sort  of  chance?"  asked  Jacqueline. 

'*  In  the  line  of  my  odious  calling.  But  this  time  the 
capture  was  worth  making.  Do  you  remember  that  little 
Prussian  engraver  about  whom  I  sent  you  to  Berlin?" 

''  The  one  who  forged  those  Vienna  bank  bills  in  that 
wonderful  way?" 

28 


434  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

*' Yes.  I  just  missed  arresting  him  near  Saint-Sul- 
pice.  But  I  followed  him  into  the  church,  where  I  heard 
your  Signora  Luigia." 

"  Ah!  "  said  Jacqueline,  "  she  has  made  up  her  mind 
at  last,  and  has  left  that  imbecile  of  a  sculptor." 

"  It  is  about  her  that  I  have  come  to  talk  to  you," 
said  Yautrin.  "  Here  are  the  facts.  The  Italian 
opera  season  in  London  has  begun  badly,  —  their  prima 
donna  is  taken  ill.  Sir  Francis  Drake,  the  impresario, 
arrived  in  Paris  yesterday,  at  the  Hotel  des  Princes, 
rue  de  Richelieu,  in  search  of  a  prima  donna,  at  any 
rate  pro  tern.  I  have  been  to  see  him  in  the  interests 
of  the  signora.  Sir  Francis  Drake  is  an  Englishman, 
very  bald,  wath  a  red  nose,  and  long  yellow  teeth.  He 
received  me  with  cold  politeness,  and  asked  in  very 
good  P^rench  what  my  business  was." 

"  Did  you  propose  to  him  Luigia?" 

*'That  was  what  I  went  for,  —  in  the  character,  be 
it  understood,  of  a  Swedish  nobleman.  He  asked  if 
her  talent  was  known.  '  Absolutely  unknown,'  I  re- 
plied. '  It  is  risky,'  said  Sir  Francis ;  '  nevertheless 
arrange  to  let  me  hear  her.'  I  told  him  that  she  was 
staying  with  her  friend  Madame  de  Saint-Esteve,  at 
whose  house  I  could  take  tlie  liberty  to  invite  him  to 
dinner." 

^'  When?"  asked  Jacqueline. 

"To-day  is  the  19th;  I  said  the  21st.  Order  the 
dinner  from  Chevet  for  fifteen  persons,  and  send  for 
your  client  Bixiou  to  make  you  out  the  list.  Tell  him 
you  want  the  chief  men  of  the  press,  a  lawyer  to  settle 
the  terms  of  the  contract,  and  a  pianist  to  accompany 
the  signora.     Let  her  know  what  hangs  upon  it.     Sir 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  435 

Francis  Drake  and  I  will  make  np  the  number.  Use- 
less to  tell  you  that  I  am  your  friend  Comte  Ilalpher- 
tius,  who,  having  no  house  in  Paris,  gives  this  dinner 
at  yours.  Mind  that  everything  is  done  in  the  best 
taste.'' 

In  designating  Bixiou  to  his  aunt  as  the  recruiting- 
officer  of  the  dinner,  Vautrin  knew  that  through  the 
universality  of  his  relations  with  writing,  singing,  de- 
signing, eating,  living,  and  squirming  Paris,  no  one 
was  as  capable  as  he  of  spreading  the  news  of  the 
dinner  broadcast. 

At  seven  o'clock  precisely  all  the  guests  named  by 
Desroches  to  Maxime,  plus  Desroches  himself,  were 
assembled  in  the  salon  of  the  rue  de  Provence,  when 
the  negro  footman  opened  the  door  and  announced  Sir 
Francis  Drake  and  his  Excellency  the  Comte  Halpher- 
tius.  The  dress  of  the  Swedish  nobleman  was  correct 
to  the  last  degree,  —  black  coat,  white  cravat,  and 
white  waistcoat,  on  which  glowed  the  ribbon  of  an 
order  hanging  from  his  neck ;  the  rest  of  his  decora- 
tions were  fastened  to  his  coat  by  chainlets.  At  the 
first  glance  which  he  cast  upon  the  company,  Vautrin 
had  the  annoyance  of  beholding  that  Jacqueline's 
habits  and  instincts  had  been  more  potent  than  his 
express  order,  —  for  a  species  of  green  and  yellow 
turban  surmounted  her  head  in  a  manner  which  he  felt 
to  be  ridiculous ;  but  thanks  to  the  admirable  manner 
in  which  the  rest  of  his  programme  had  been  carried 
out,  the  luckless  coiffure  was  forgiven. 

As  for  Signora  Luigia,  dressed  in  black,  which  was 
customary  with  her,  and  having  had  the  good  sense  to 
reject  the  services  of  a  coiffeur^  she  was  royally  beauti- 


436  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

ful.  An  air  of  melancholy  gravity,  expressed  by  her 
whole  person,  inspired  a  sentiment  of  respect  which 
surprised  the  men  who  on  Bixiou's  invitation  were  there 
to  judge  of  her.  The  only  special  presentation  that 
was  made  among  the  guests  was  that  of  Desroches  to 
Vautrin,  which  Bixiou  made  in  the  following  lively 
formula :  — 

''  Maitre  Desroches,  the  most  intelligent  solicitor  of 
modern  times  —  Comte  Halphertius  of  Sweden." 

As  for  Sir  Francis  Drake,  he  seemed  at  first  inclined 
to  disdain  the  influence  of  the  dramatic  newspapers, 
whose  representatives  w^ere  there  assembled  ;  but  pres- 
ently recognizing  Felicien  Vernou  and  Lousteau,  two 
noted  men  of  that  secondary  press,  he  greeted  them 
heartily  and  shook  them  by  the  hand. 

Before  dinner  was  announced,  Comte  Halphertius 
judged  it  advisable  to  make  a  little  speech. 

''Dear  madame,"  he  said  to  his  aunt,  "you  are 
really  a  fairy  godmother.  This  is  the  first  time  I  have 
ever  been  in  a  Parisian  salon,  and  here  you  have  as- 
sembled to  meet  me  all  that  literature,  the  arts,  and  the 
legal  profession  can  offer  of  their  best.  I,  who  am 
only  a  northern  barbarian,  —  though  our  country,  too, 
can  boast  of  its  celebrities,  —  Linnaeus,  Berzelius, 
Thorwaldsen,  Tegner,  Franzen,  Geier,  and  the  charm- 
ing novelist  Frederika  Bremer,  —  I  find  myself  a 
cipher  in  such  company." 

''But  in  Bernadotte  France  and  Sweden  clasped 
hands,"  replied  Madame  de  Saint-Esteve,  whose  his- 
torical erudition  went  as  far  as  that. 

"  It  is  very  certain,"  said  Vautrin,  "  that  our  beloved 
sovereign,  Charles  XIV.  —  " 


The  Deputy  of  Areis,  437 

The  announcement  of  dinner  by  a  majordomo,  who 
threw  open  the  double  doors  of  the  salon,  put  an  end 
to  this  remark.  Jacqueline  took  Vautriu's  arm,  say- 
ing in  a  whisper  as  they  walked  along,  — 

"  Have  I  done  things  all  rio:ht?  " 

"Yes,"  replied  Vautrin,  ''it  is  all  in  good  style, 
except  that  devil  of  a  turban  of  yours,  which  makes 
you  look  like  a  poll-parrot." 

"  Why,  no,"  said  Jacqueline,  '*  not  at  all ;  with  my 
Javanese  face"  (she  was  born  on  the  island  of  Java), 
"oriental  things  set  me  off." 

Madame  de  Saint-Esteve  placed  Sir  Francis  Drake 
upon  her  right,  and  Desroches  at  her  left;  Vautrin 
sat  opposite,  flanked  on  either  side  by  Emile  Blondet, 
of  the  "  Debats,"  and  the  Signora  Luigia;  the  rest  of 
the  company  placed  themselves  as  they  pleased.  The 
dinner,  on  the  whole,  was  dull ;  Bixiou,  at  Madame  de 
Saint-Esteve's  request,  had  warned  his  party  to  risk 
nothing  that  might  offend  the  chaste  ears  of  the  pious 
Italian.  Forced  to  mind  their  morals,  as  a  celebrated 
critic  once  observed,  these  men  of  wit  and  audacity 
lost  their  spirit ;  and,  taking  refuge  in  the  menu,  which 
was  excellent,  they  either  talked  together  in  a  low 
voice,  or  let  the  conversation  drag  itself  along  in  bour- 
geois commonplaces.  They  ate  and  they  drank,  but 
they  did  not  dine.  Bixiou,  incapable  of  bearing  this 
state  of  things  during  a  whole  dinner,  determined  to 
create  a  reaction.  The  appearance  of  this  Swedish 
magnate,  evidently  on  intimate  terms  with  the  Saint- 
Est^ve,  puzzled  him.  He  noticed  a  certain  insuOiciency 
in  Vautrin,  and  thought  to  himself  that  if  he  were 
really  a  great  nobleman,  he  would  be  more  equal  to 


438  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

the  occasion,  and  give  a  tone  to  the  feast.  He  deter- 
mined, therefore,  to  test  him,  and  thus  provide  amuse- 
ment, at  any  rate,  for  himself.  So,  at  the  end  of  the 
second  coarse,  he  suddenly  said  from  his  end  of  the 
table,  — 

"  Monsieur  le  comte,  you  are  too  young,  of  course, 
to  have  known  Gustavus  III.,  whom  Scribe  and  Auber 
have  set  in  opera,  while  the  rest  of  us  glorify  him  in  a 
galop. ^^ 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,"  replied  Vautrin,  jumping  at 
the  chance  thus  given  him,  "I  am  nearly  sixty  years 
of  age,  which  makes  me  thirteen  in  1792,  when  our 
beloved  sovereign  was  killed  by  the  assassin  Ankar- 
stroem,  so  that  I  can  well  remember  that  period." 

Thus,  by  means  of  a  little  volume  entitled  "  Charac- 
ters and  Anecdotes  of  the  Court  of  Sweden,"  printed 
in  1808,  and  bought  on  the  quays  in  the  interests  of 
his  Swedish  incarnation,  the  chief  of  the  detective  po- 
lice evaded  the  trap.  He  did  better.  The  faucet  being 
opened,  he  poured  forth  such  an  abundance  of  erudi- 
tion and  detailed  circumstances,  he  related  so  many 
curious  and  secret  anecdotes,  especially  relating  to  the 
coup  d'etat  by  which,  in  1772,  Gustavus  III.  had 
freed  his  crown,  —  in  short,  he  was  so  precise  and  so 
interesting  that  as  they  left  the  table  Emile  Blondet 
said  to  Bixiou,  — 

"  I  thought,  as  3^ou  did,  that  a  foreign  count  in  the 
hands  of  a  marriage  agent  was  a  very  suspicious  char- 
acter ;  but  he  knows  the  court  of  Sweden  in  a  way  that 
it  was  quite  impossible  to  get  out  of  books.  He  is  evi- 
dently a  man  well  born  ;  one  might  make  some  inter- 
esting articles  out  of  the  stories  he  has  just  told." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  439 

"  Yes,"  said  Bixiou,  "  and  I  mean  to  cultivate  his 
acquaintance  ;  I  could  make  a  good  deal  out  of  him  in 
the  Charivari." 

''  You  had  better  find  out  first,"  said  Desroches, 
"  whether  he  has  enough  French  humor  to  like  being 
caricatured." 

Presently  the  first  notes  of  the  piano  gave  notice 
that  the  Signora  Luigia  was  about  to  mount  the 
breach.  She  first  sang  the  romance  in  ''  Saul "  with  a 
depth  of  expression  which  moved  the  whole  company, 
even  though  that  areopagus  of  judges  were  digesting 
a  good  dinner,  as  to  which  they  had  not  restrained 
themselves,  fimile  Blondet,  wlio  was  more  of  a  polit- 
ical thinker  than  a  man  of  imagination,  was  completely 
carried  away  by  his  enthusiasm.  As  the  song  ended, 
Felicien  Vernou  and  Lousteau  went  up  to  Sir  Francis 
Drake  and  reproached  him  for  wishing  to  take  such  a 
treasure  from  France,  at  the  same  time  flattering  him 
for  his  cleverness  as  an  impresario. 

La  Luigia  then  sang  an  air  from  the  "  Nina  "  of  Paesl- 
ello  ;  and  in  that  —  the  part  being  very  dramatic  —  she 
showed  a  talent  for  comedy  second  only  to  her  vocal 
gift.  It  was  received  with  really  genuine  applause ; 
but  what  assured  and  completed  her  success  with  these 
trained  judges  was  her  modesty  and  the  sort  of  igno- 
rance in  which  she  still  remained  of  her  amazing  talent, 
—  in  the  midst,  too,  of  praises  which  might  have  turned 
her  head.  Accustomed  to  frenzied  self-love  and  the  in- 
solent pretensions  of  the  veriest  sparrow  of  the  opera, 
these  journalists  were  amazed  and  touclied  by  the 
humility,  the  simplicity  of  this  empress,  who  seemed 
quite  astonished  at  the  effect  she  produced. 


440  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

The  success  of  the  trial  passed  all  expectation. 
There  was  but  one  voice  as  to  the  desirability  of 
immediately  engaging  her;  and  Sir  Francis  Drake, 
Yautrin,  and  Desroches  presently  passed  into  an  ad- 
joining room  to  draw  up  the  terms  of  the  contract. 
As  soon  as  that  was  done,  Vautrin  returned  to  the 
salon  for  la  diva^  requesting  her  to  hear  the  contract 
read  and  to  affix  her  signature.  Her  departure  for 
London  without  further  delay  was  fixed  for  the  follow- 
ing day  in  company  with  Sir  Francis  Drake. 

A  few  days  later  the  packet-boat  from  Boulogne 
conveyed  to  England  another  personage  of  this  his- 
tory. Jacques  Bricheteau,  having  obtained  Sallenauve's 
present  address  from  Madame  de  I'Estorade,  and  con- 
sidering the  danger  which  threatened  the  new  deputy 
extremely  urgent,  determined  not  to  write,  but  to  go 
himself  to  England  and  confer  with  him  in  person. 
When  he  reached  London,  he  was  surprised  to  learn 
that  Hanwell  was  the  most  celebrated  insane  asylum 
in  Great  Britain.  Had  he  reflected  on  the  mental  con- 
dition of  Marie-Gaston,  he  might  have  guessed  the 
truth.  As  it  was,  he  felt  completely  bewildered  ;  but 
not  committing  the  blunder  of  losing  his  time  in  use- 
less conjectures,  he  went  on  without  a  moment's  delay 
to  Hanwell,  which  establishment  is  only  about  nine 
miles  from  London,  pleasantly  situated  at  the  foot  of 
a  hill  on  the  borders  of  Middlesex  and  Surrey. 

After  a  long  detention  in  the  waiting-room,  he  was 
at  last  enabled  to  see  his  friend  at  a  moment  when 
Marie-Gaston' 8  insanity,  which  for  several  days  had 
been  in  the  stages  of  mania,  was  yielding  to  the  care 
of  the  doctor,  and  showed  some  symptoms  of  a  prob- 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  441 

able  recovery.  As  soon  as  Sallenauve  was  alone  with 
the  organist,  he  inquired  the  reason  that  led  him  to 
follow  him;  and  he  heard,  with  some  emotion,  the 
news  of  the  intrigue  which  Maxime  de  Trailles  had 
apparently  organized  against  him.  Returning  to  his 
original  suspicions,  he  said  to  Jacques  Bricheteau,  — 

''Are  you  really  sure  that  that  person  who  declared 
himself  my  father  was  the  Marquis  de  Sallenauve,  and 
that  I  am  truly  his  sou?" 

"Mother  Marie-des-Anges  and  Antoine  Pigoult, 
by  whom  I  was  warned  of  this  plot,  have  no  more 
doubt  than  I  have  of  the  existence  of  the  Marquis  de 
Sallenauve ;  this  gossip  with  which  they  threaten  you 
has,  in  my  judgment,  but  one  dangerous  aspect.  1 
mean  that  by  your  absence  you  are  giving  a  free  field 
to  your  adversaries." 

''But,"  replied  the  deputy,  "the  Chamber  would  not 
condemn  me  without  a  hearing.  I  wrote  to  the  presi- 
dent and  asked  for  leave  of  absence,  and  I  took  the 
precaution  to  request  de  I'P^storade,  who  knows  the 
reason  of  my  absence,  to  be  kind  enough  to  guarantee 
me,  should  my  absence  be  called  in  question." 

"I  think  you  also  wrote  to  Madame  de  I'Estorade, 
did  n't  you?" 

"I  wrote  only  to  her,"  replied  Sallenauve.  "I 
wanted  to  tell  her  about  the  great  misfortune  of  our 
mutual  friend,  and,  at  the  same  time,  I  asked  her  to 
explain  to  her  husband  the  kind  service  I  requested 
him  to  do  for  me." 

"If  that  is  so,"  said  Bricheteau,  "you  need  not 
count  for  one  moment  on  the  I'Estorades.  A  knowl- 
edge of  this  trick  which  is  being  organized  against 


442  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

you  has  reached  their  ears  and  affected  their  minds, 
I  am  very  sure." 

He  then  related  the  reception  he  had  met  with  from 
Madame  de  I'Estorade,  and  the  uncivil  remarks  she 
had  made  about  Sallenauve,  from  which  he  concluded 
that  in  the  struggle  about  to  take  place  no  assistance 
could  be  relied  on  from  that  direction. 

''I  have  every  reason  to  be  surprised,"  said  Salle- 
nauve, "after  the  warm  assurances  Madame  de 
I'Estorade  has  given  me  of  an  unfailing  good-will. 
However,"  he  added  philosophically,  "everything  is 
possible  in  this  world ;  and  calumny  has  often  under- 
mined friendship." 

"You  understand,  therefore,"  said  Bricheteau, 
"that  it  is  all-important  to  start  for  Paris,  without 
a  moment's  delay.  Your  stay  here,  all  things  con- 
sidered, is  only  relatively  necessary." 

"On  the  contrary,"  said  Sallenauve,  "the  doctor 
considers  that  my  presence  here  may  be  of  the  utmost 
utility.  He  has  not  yet  let  me  see  the  patient,  because 
h3  expects  to  produce  some  great  result  when  I  do  see 
him." 

"That  is  problematical,"  returned  Jacques  Briche- 
teau; "whereas  by  staying  here  you  are  compromising 
your  political  future  and  your  reputation  in  the  most 
positive  manner.  Such  a  sacrifice  no  friendship  has 
the  right  to  demand  of  you." 

"Let  us  talk  of  it  with  the  doctor,"  said  Sallenauve, 
unable  to  deny  the  truth  of  what  Bricheteau  said. 

On  being  questioned,  the  doctor  replied  that  he  had 
just  seen  symptoms  in  the  patient  which  threatened 
another  paroxysm. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  443 

**But,"  cried  Sallenauve,  eagerly,  "you  are  not 
losing  hope  of  a  cure,  are  you,  doctor?  " 

''Far  from  that.  I  have  perfect  faith  in  the  ulti- 
mate termination  of  the  case;  but  I  see  more  delay 
in  reaching  it  than  at  first  I  expected,"  replied  the 
doctor. 

''I  have  recently  been  elected  to  our  Chamber  of 
deputies,"  said  Sallenauve,  ''and  I  ought  to  be  in  my 
seat  at  the  opening  of  the  session;  in  fact,  my  inter- 
ests are  seriously  concerned,  and  my  friend  Monsieur 
Bricheteau  has  come  over  to  fetch  me.  If  therefore 
I  can  be  sure  that  my  presence  here  is  not  essential  —  " 

"By  all  means,  go,"  said  the  doctor.  "It  may  be 
a  long  time  before  I  could  allow  you  to  see  the  patient; 
therefore  you  can  leave  without  the  slightest  self- 
reproach.  In  fact,  you  can  really  do  nothing  here  at 
present.  Trust  him  to  Lord  Lewin  and  me;  I  assure 
you  that  I  shall  make  his  recovery,  of  which  I  have  no 
doubt,  a  matter  of  personal  pride  and  self-love." 

Sallenauve  pressed  the  doctor's  hand  gratefully,  and 
started  for  London  without  delay.  Arriving  there  at 
five  o'clock,  the  travellers  were  unable  to  leave  before 
midnight;  meantime  their  eyes  were  struck  at  every 
turn  by  those  enormous  posters  which  English  pujffisvi 
alone  is  able  to  produce,  announcing  the  second  ap- 
pearance at  Her  Majesty's  Theatre  of  the  Signora 
Luigia.  The  name  alone  was  enough  to  attract  the 
attention  of  both  travellers;  but  the  newspapers  to 
which  they  had  recourse  for  further  information  fur- 
nished, as  is  customary  in  P^ngland,  so  many  cir- 
cumstantial details  about  the  prima  donna  that  Salle- 
nauve could  no  longer  doubt   the   transformation  of 


444  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

his  late  housekeeper  into  an  operatic  star  of  the  first 
magnitude. 

Going  to  the  box-office,  which  he  found  closed, 
every  seat  having  been  sold  before  mid-day,  Salle- 
nauve  considered  himself  lucky  to  obtain  two  seats 
from  a  speculator,  at  the  enormous  cost  of  five  pounds 
apiece.  The  opera  was  ''La  Pazza  d'Amore "  of 
Paesiello.  When  the  curtain  rose,  Sallenauve,  who 
had  spent  the  last  two  weeks  at  Hanwell,  among  the 
insane,  could  all  the  more  appreciate  the  remarkable 
dramatic  talent  his  late  housekeeper  displayed  in  the 
part  of  Nina.  Even  Bricheteau,  although  annoyed  at 
Sallenauve' s  determination  to  be  present,  was  so  car- 
ried away  by  the  power  of  the  singer  that  he  said  to 
his  companion  rather  imprudently,  — 

"Politics  have  no  such  triumphs  as  that.  Art  alone 
is  deity  —  " 

"And  Luigia  is  its  prophet!  "  added  Sallenauve. 

Never,  perhaps,  had  the  Italian  opera-house  in  Lon- 
don presented  a  more  brilliant  sight;  the  whole  audi- 
ence was  in  a  transport  of  enthusiasm,  and  bouquets 
fairly  rained  upon  the  stage. 

As  they  left  the  theatre,  Bricheteau  looked  at  his 
watch;  it  was  a  quarter  to  eleven;  they  had  thus 
ample  time  to  take  the  steamer  leaving,  as  the  tide 
served,  at  midnight.  But  when  the  organist  turned 
to  make  this  remark  to  Sallenauve,  who  was  behind 
him,  he  saw  nothing  of  his  man;  the  deputy  had 
vanished ! 

Ten  minutes  later  the  maid  of  the  Signora  Luigia 
entered  her  mistress's  dressing-room,  which  was  filled 
with    distinguished    Englishmen    presented     by    Sir 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  445 

Francis  Drake  to  the  new  star,  and  gave  her  a  card. 
On  reading  the  name  the  prima  donna  turned  pale  and 
whispered  a  few  words  to  the  waiting-woman;  then 
she  seemed  so  anxious  to  be  rid  of  the  crowd  who 
were  pressing  round  her  that  her  budding  adorers 
were  inclined  to  be  angry.  But  a  great  singer  has 
rare  privileges,  and  the  fatigue  of  the  part  into  which 
the  diua  had  just  put  so  much  soul  seemed  so  good 
an  excuse  for  her  sulkiness  that  her  court  dispersed 
without  much  murmuring. 

Left  alone,  the  signora  rapidly  resumed  her  usual 
dress,  and  the  directors'  carriage  took  her  back  to  the 
hotel  where  she  had  stayed  since  arriving  in  London. 
On  entering  her  salon  she  found  Sallenauve,  who  had 
preceded  her. 

''You  in  London,  monsieur!  '*  she  said;  ''it  is  like 
a  dream !  " 

"Especially  to  me,"  replied  Sallenauve,  "who  find 
you  here,  after  searching  hopelessly  for  you  in 
Paris  —  " 

"Did  you  take  that  pains?  — why?  " 

"You  left  me  in  so  strange  a  manner,  and  your 
nature  is  so  rash,  you  knew  so  little  of  Paris,  and  so 
many  dangers  might  threaten  your  inexperience,  that 
I  feared  for  you." 

"Suppose  harm  did  happen  to  me;  I  was  neither 
your  wife,  nor  your  sister,  nor  your  mistress;  1  was 
only  your  —  " 

"1  thought,"  said  Sallenauve,  hastily,  "that  you 
were  my  friend." 

"I  was  —  under  obligation  to  you,"  she  replied. 
"I  saw  that  I  was  becoming  an  embarrassment   in 


446  The  Deputy  of  Areis. 

your  new  situation.  What  else  could  I  do  but  release 
you  from  it?  " 

"Who  told  you  that  you  were  an  embarrassment  to 
me?  Have  I  ever  said  or  intimated  anything  of  the 
kind?  Could  I  not  speak  to  you,  as  I  did,  about 
your  future  professional  life  without  wounding  so 
deeply  your  sensibility?" 

''People  feel  things  as  they  feel  them,"  replied 
Luigia.  "I  had  the  inward  consciousness,  that  you 
would  rather  I  were  out  of  your  house  than  iu  it.  My 
future  you  had  already  given  me  the  means  to  secure ; 
you  see  for  yourself  it  is  opening  in  a  manner  that 
ought  to  reassure  you." 

"It  seems  to  me  so  brilliant  that  I  hope  you  will 
not  think  me  indiscreet  if  I  ask  whose  hand,  more 
fortunate  than  mine,  has  produced  this  happy  result." 

''That  of  a  great  Swedish  nobleman,"  replied  Luigia, 
without  hesitation.  "Or  rather,  I  should  say,  as  the 
friend  of  a  lady  who  took  an  interest  in  me,  he  pro- 
cured me  an  engagement  at  Her  Majesty's  Theatre; 
the  kind  encouragement  of  the  public  has  done  the 
rest." 

"Say,  rather,  your  own  talent;  I  was  present  at  the 
performance  this  evening." 

Making  him  a  coquettish  courtesy,  Luigia  said,  — 

"I  hope  you  were  satisfied  with  your  humble  servant." 

"Your  musical  powers  did  not  surprise  me,  for 
those  I  knew  already;  but  those  transports  of  dra- 
matic passion,  your  powerful  acting,  so  sure  of  itself, 
did  certainly  astonish  me." 

"It  comes  from  having  suffered  much,"  replied 
Luigia;  "suffering  is  a  great  teacher." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  447 

''Suffered?  Yes,  I  know  you  did,  iu  Italy.  But  I 
have  liked  to  feel  that  after  your  arrival  in  France  —  " 

''Always;  I  have  always  suffered,"  she  said  in  a 
voice  of  emotion.    "I  was  not  born  under  a  happy  star." 

"That  '  always  '  seems  like  a  reproach  to  me,"  said 
Sallenauve,  "and  yet  I  do  not  know  what  wrong  I  can 
have  done  you." 

"You  have  done  me  no  wrong;  the  harm  was  there!  " 
she  cried,  striking  her  breast,  —  "within  me!  " 

"Probably  some  foolish  fancy,  such  as  that  of  leav- 
ing my  house  suddenly,  because  your  mistaken  sense 
of  honor  made  you  think  yourself  in  my  way." 

"Not  mistaken,"  she  replied.  "I  know  what  was 
in  your  thoughts.  If  only  on  account  of  what  you 
had  done  for  me,  I  knew  I  could  never  aspire  to  your 
esteem." 

"But,  my  dear  Luigia,  I  call  such  ideas  absurd. 
Have  I  ever  shown  you  any  want  of  considera- 
tion? How  could  1?  Your  conduct  has  always  been 
exemplary." 

"Yes,  I  tried  to  do  everything  that  would  give  you 
a  good  opinion  of  me;  but  I  was  none  the  less  the 
widow  of  Benedetto." 

"What!  can  you  suppose  that  that  misfortune,  the 
result  of  a  just  vengeance  —  " 

"Ah!  no,  it  is  not  the  death  of  that  man  that 
lowered  me  in  your  eyes;  on  the  contrary.  But  I  had 
been  the  wife  of  a  buffoon,  of  a  police-spy,  of  a  base 
man,  ready  to  sell  me  to  any  one  who  would  give  him 
money." 

"As  long  as  that  situation  lasted,  I  thought  you 
deeply  to  be  pitied;  but  despised,   never!" 


448  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

"And,"  continued  the  Italian,  more  excitedly,  "we 
had  lived  two  years  under  the  same  roof,  you  and  I 
alone." 

"Yes,  and  I  found  my  comfort  in  it." 

"Did  you  think  me  ugly?" 

"You  know  better  than  that,  for  I  made  my  finest 
statue  from  you." 

"Foolish?"  ■ 

"No  one  was  ever  foolish  who  could  act  such  a  part 
as  you  did  to-night." 

"Then  you  must  see  that  you  despised  me." 

Sallenauve  seemed  wholly  surprised  by  this  deduc- 
tion; he  thought  himself  very  clever  in  replying,  — 

"It  seems  to  me  that  if  I  had  behaved  to  you  in 
any  other  manner  you  would  have  the  right  to  say  that 
I  despised  you." 

But  he  had  to  do  with  a  woman  who  in  everything, 
in  her  friendships,  her  hatreds,  her  actions,  as  in  her 
words,  went  straight  to  her  point.  As  if  she  feared 
not  to  be  fully  understood,  she  went  on :  — 

"To-day,  monsieur,  I  can  tell  you  all,  for  I  speak 
of  the  past;  the  future  has  opened  before  me,  as  you 
see.  From  the  day  you  were  good  to  me  and  by  your 
generous  protection  I  escaped  an  infamous  outrage, 
my  heart  has  been  wholly  yours." 

Sallenauve,  who  had  never  suspected  that  feeling, 
and,  above  all,  was  unable  to  understand  how  so  art- 
lessly crude  an  avowal  of  it  could  be  made,  knew  not 
what  to  answer. 

"I  was  not  ignorant,"  continued  the  strange  woman, 
"that  I  should  have  difficulty  in  rising  from  the  degra- 
dation in  which  I  appeared  to  you  at  our  first  meeting. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  449 

If,  at  the  time  you  consented  to  take  me  with  you 
to  Paris,  I  had  seen  you  incline  to  treat  me  with 
gallantry,  had  you  shown  any  sign  of  turning  to  your 
profit  the  dangerous  situation  in  which  I  had  placed 
myself,  my  heart  would  instantly  have  retired;  you 
would  have  seemed  to  me  an  ordinary  man  —  " 

''So,"  remarked  Sallenauve,  "to  love  you  would 
have  been  insulting;  not  to  love  you  was  cruel!  What 
sort  of  woman  are  you,  that  either  way  you  are  dis- 
pleased?" 

"You  ought  not  to  have  loved  me,"  she  replied, 
"while  the  mud  was  still  on  my  skirts  and  you  scarcely 
knew  me ;  because  then  your  love  would  have  been  the 
love  of  the  eyes  and  not  of  the  soul.  But  when,  after 
two  years  passed  beside  you,  you  had  seen  by  my 
conduct  that  I  was  an  honorable  woman ;  when,  with- 
out ever  accepting  a  pleasure,  I  devoted  myself  to  the 
care  of  the  house  and  your  comfort  without  other 
relaxation  than  the  study  of  my  art;  and  when,  above 
all,  I  sacrificed  to  you  that  modesty  you  bad  seen  me 
defend  with  such  energy,  —  then  you  were  cruel  not  to 
comprehend,  and  never,  never  will  your  imagination 
tell  you  what  I  have  suffered,  and  all  the  tears  you 
have  made  me  shed." 

"But,  my  dear  Luigia,  I  was  your  host,  and  even 
had  I  suspected  wliat  you  now  reveal  to  me,  my  duty 
us  an  honorable  man  would  have  commanded  me  to  see 
nothing  of  it,  and  to  take  no  advantage  of  you." 

"Ah!  that  is  not  the  reason;  it  is  simpler  than 
that.  You  saw  nothing  because  your  fancy  turned 
elsewhere." 

"Well,  and  if  it  were  so?" 

29 


450  The  Deputy  of  Areis, 

"It  ought  not  to  be  so,'*  replied  Luigia,  vehemently. 
"That  woman  is  not  free;  she  has  a  husband  and 
children,  and  though  you  did  make  a  saint  of  her,  I 
presume  to  say,  ridiculous  as  it  may  seem,  that  she  is 
not  worth  me !  " 

Sallenauve  could  not  help  smiling,  but  he  answered 
very  seriously,  — 

''  You  are  totally  mistaken  as  to  your  rival.  Madame 
de  I'Estorade  was  never  anything  to  me  but  a  model, 
without  other  value  than  the  fact  that  she  resembled 
another  woman.  That  one  I  knew  in  Rome  before 
T  knew  you.  She  had  beauty,  youth,  and  a  glorious 
inclination  for  art.  To-day  she  is  confined  in  a  convent ; 
like  you,  she  has  paid  her  tribute  to  sorrow ;  therefore, 
you  see  —  " 

"What,  three  hearts  devoted  to  you,"  cried  Luigia, 
'  "  and  not  one  accepted  ?  A  strange  star  is  yours  !  No 
doubt  I  suffer  from  its  fatal  influence,  and  therefore  I 
must  pardon  you." 

"  You  are  good  to  be  merciful ;  will  you  now  let  me 
ask  you  a  question?  Just  now  you  spoke  of  your 
future,  and  .1  see  it  with  my  own  eyes.  Who  are  the 
friends  who  have  suddenly  advanced  you  so  far  and  so 
splendidly  in  your  career?  Have  you  made  any  com- 
pact with  the  devil?  " 

"  Perhaps,"  said  Luigia,  laughing. 

''  Don't  laugh,"  said  Sallenauve ;  "  j^ou  chose  to 
rush  alone  and  unprotected  into  that  hell  called  Paris, 
and  I  dread  lest  you  have  made  some  fatal  acquaint- 
ance. I  know  the  immense  difliiculties  and  the  im- 
mense dangers  that  a  woman  placed  as  you  are  now 
must  meet.     Who  is  this  lady  that  you  spoke  of?  and 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  451 

how  did  you  ever  meet  her  while  living  under  my 
roof?" 

**  Siie  is  a  pious  and  charitable  woman,  who  came  to 
see  me  during  your  absence  at  Arcis.  She  had  noticed 
my  voice  at  Saint-Sulpice,  during  the  services  of  the 
Month  of  Mary,  and  she  tried  to  entice  me  away  to  her 
own  parish  church  of  Notre-Darae  de  Lorette,  —  it  was 
for  that  she  came  to  see  me." 

"  Tell  me  her  name." 

*' Madame  de  Saint-Esteve." 

Though  far  from  penetrating  the  many  mysteries 
that  surrounded  Jacqueline  Collin,  Sallenauve  knew 
Madame  de  Saint-Esteve  to  be  a  woman  of  doubtful 
character  and  a  matrimonial  agent,  having  at  times 
heard  Bixiou  tell  tales  of  her. 

''  But  that  woman,"  he  said,  ''  has  a  shocking  noto- 
riety in  Paris.  She  is  an  adventuress  of  the  worst 
kind." 

'*  I  suspected  it,"  said  Luigia.    *'  But  what  of  that  ?  " 

*'  And  the  man  to  whom  she  introduced  you?  " 

*'He  an  adventurer?  No,  I  think  not.  At  any 
rate,  he  did  me  a  great  service." 

'*  But  he  may  have  designs  upon  you." 

''Yes,  people  may  have  designs  upon  me,"  replied 
Luigia,  with  dignity,  "  but  they  cannot  execute  them  : 
between  those  designs  and  me,  there  is  m3^8elf." 

"  But  your  reputation?" 

''That  was  lost  before  I  left  your  house.  I  was  said 
to  be  your  mistress;  you  had  yourself  to  contradict 
that  charge  before  the  electoral  college ;  you  con- 
tradicted it,  but  you  could  not  stop  it." 

"And my  esteem,  for  which  you  profess  to  care?" 


452  The  Dejputy  of  Arcis. 

"  I  no  longer  want  it.  You  did  not  love  me  when  I 
wished  for  it ;  you  shall  not  love  me  now  that  I  no 
longer  wish  it." 

''  Who  knows?  "  exclaimed  Sallenauve. 

*'  There  are  two  reasons  why  it  cannot  be,"  said  the 
singer.  "In  the  first  place,  it  is  too  late  ;  and  in  the 
second,  we  are  no  longer  on  the  same  path." 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  that?  " 

"I  am  an  artist  and  you  have  ceased  to  be  one.  I 
rise ;  you  fall." 

"  Do  you  call  it  falling  to  rise,  perhaps,  to  the  highest 
dignities  of  the  State  ?  " 

"  To  whatever  height  you  rise,"  said  Luigia,  passion- 
ately, "  3^ou  will  ever  be  below  your  past  and  the  noble 
future  that  was  once  before  you —  Ah!  stay;  I 
think  that  I  have  lied  to  you ;  had  you  remained  a 
sculptor,  I  believe  I  should  have  borne  still  longer  your 
coldness  and  your  disdain  ;  I  should  have  waited  until 
1  entered  my  vocation,  until  the  halo  round  a  singer's 
head  might  have  shown  you,  at  last,  that  I  was  there 
beside  you.  But  on  the  day  that  you  apostatized  I 
would  no  longer  continue  my  humiliating  sacrifice. 
There  is  no  future  possible  between  us." 

"Do  you  mean,"  said  Sallenauve,  holding  out  his 
hand,  which  she  did  not  take,  "  that  we  cannot  even 
be  f  i-iends  ?  " 

"No,  she  replied;  "  all  is  over —  past  and  gone." 
We  shall  hear  of  each  other ;  and  from  afar,  as  we 
pass  in  life,  we  can  wave  our  hands  in  recognition,  but 
nothing  further." 

"So,"  said  Sallenauve,  sadly,  "this  is  how  it  all 
ends !  " 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  453 

La  Luigia  looked  at  him  a  moment,  her  eyes  shiuing 
with  tears. 

"  Listen,"  she  said  in  a  resohite  and  sincere  tone  : 
"  this  is  possible.  I  have  loved  you,  and  after  you,  no 
one  can  enter  the  heart  you  have  despised.  You  will 
hear  that  I  have  lovers ;  believe  it  not ;  you  will  not 
believe  it,  remembering  the  woman  that  I  am.  But 
who  knows  ?  Later  your  life  may  be  swept  clean  of  the 
other  sentiments  that  have  stood  in  my  way;  the 
freedom,  the  strangeness  of  the  avowal  I  have  just 
made  to  you  will  remain  in  your  memory,  and  then  it  is 
not  impossible  that  after  this  long  rejection  you  may 
end  by  desiring  me.  If  that  should  happen,  —  if  at  the 
end  of  many  sad  deceptions  you  should  return,  in  sheer 
remorse,  to  the  religion  of  art,  —  then,  then,  supposing 
that  long  years  have  not  made  love  ridiculous  between 
us,  remember  this  evening.  Now,  let  us  part ;  it  is 
already  too  late  for  a  t^te-d^-tite." 

So  saying,  she  took  a  light  and  passed  into  an 
inner  room,  leaving  Sallenauve  in  a  state  of  mind  we 
can  readily  imagine  after  the  various  shocks  and 
surprises  of  this  interview. 

On  returning  to  his  hotel  he  found  Jacques  Briche- 
teau  awaiting  him. 

*' Where  the  devil  have  you  been?"  cried  the 
organist,  impatiently.  ''It  is  too  late  now  to  take 
that  steamboat." 

''Well,"  said  Sallenauve,  carelessly,  "then  I  shall 
have  a  few  hours  longer  to  play  truant." 

"  But  during  that  time  your  enemies  are  tunnelling 
their  mine." 

"I  don't  care.  In  that  cave  called  political  life  one 
has  to  be  ready  for  anything." 


454  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

"  I  thought  as  much  ! "  exclaimed  Bricheteau.  "  You 
have  been  to  see  Luigia ;  her  success  has  turned  your 
head,  and  the  deputy  is  thinking  of  his  statues." 

"How  often  have  I  heard  you  say  yourself  that  Art 
alone  is  great?  " 

''But  an  orator,"  replied  Bricheteau,  "is  also  an 
artist,  and  the  greatest  of  all.  Others  speak  to  the 
heart  and  the  mind,  but  he  to  the  conscience  and  the 
will  of  others.  At  any  rate,  this  is  no  time  to  look 
back;  you  are  engaged  in  a  duel  with  your  adversa- 
ries. Are  you  an  honest  man,  or  a  scoundrel  who 
has  stolen  a  name?  There  is  the  question  which  may, 
in  consequence  of  your  absence,  be  answered  against 
you  in  the  Chamber." 

"I  begin  to  feel  that  you  have  led  me  into  a  mis- 
taken path ;  I  had  in  my  hands  a  treasure,  and  I  have 
flung  it  away !  " 

"Happily,"  said  the  organist,  "that's  only  an  even- 
ing mist  which  the  night  will  dissipate.  To-morrow 
you  will  remember  the  engagement  you  are  under  to 
your  father,  and  the  great  future  which  is  before 
you." 


The  Deputy  of  Areis,  466 


IX. 


IN   THE    CHAMBER. 


The  king  had  opened  the  Chamber,  but  Sallenauve 
was  not  present,  and  his  absence  was  causing  a  certain 
sensation  in  the  democratic  ranks.  The  "National '* 
was  particularly  disturbed.  As  a  stockholder  of  the 
paper,  coming  frequently  to  its  office  before  the  elec- 
tion, and  even  consenting  to  write  articles  for  it,  how 
strange  that  on  the  eve  of  the  opening  of  the  session 
the  newly  elected  deputy  should  not  come  near  it  ! 

''Now  that  he  is  elected,"  said  some  of  the  edi- 
torial staff,  remarking  on  the  total  disappearance  of 
the  man  whom  they  considered  they  had  done  their 
part  to  elect,  ''does  monsieur  think  he  can  treat  ns 
scurvily?  It  is  getting  too  much  the  habit  of  these 
lordly  deputies  to  be  very  obsequious  as  long  as  they 
are  candidates,  and  throw  us  away,  after  they  have 
climbed  the  tree,  like  an  old  coat." 

Less  excitable,  the  editor-in-chief  calmed  this  first 
ebullition,  but  Sallenauve's  absence  from  the  royal  ses- 
sion seemed  to  him  very  strange. 

The  next  day,  when  the  bureaus  are  constituted, 
presidents  and  secretaries  appointed,  and  committees 
named,  Sallenauve's  absence  was  still  more  marked. 
In  the  bureau  for  which  his  name  was  drawn,  it  hap- 
pened that  the  election  of  its  president  depended  on 


456  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

one  vote ;  through  the  absence  of  the  deputy  of  Arcis, 
the  ministry  gained  that  advantage  and  the  Opposi- 
tion lost  it.  Much  discontent  was  expressed  by  the 
newspapers  of  the  latter  party;  they  did  not,  as  yet, 
openly  attack  the  conduct  of  the  defaulter,  but  they 
declared  that  they  could  not  account  for  it.. 

Maxime  de  Trailles,  on  the  other  hand,  fully  pre- 
pared and  on  the  watch,  was  waiting  only  until  the 
routine  business  of  the  bureaus  and  the  appointment 
of  the  committees  was  disposed  of  to  send  in  the  peti- 
tion of  the  Romilly  peasant-woman,  which  had  been 
carefully  drawn  up  by  Massol,  under  whoSe  clever 
pen  the  facts  he  was  employed  to  make  the  most  of 
assumed  that  degree  of  probability  which  barristers 
contrive  to  communicate  to  their  sayings  and  affirma- 
tions. But  when  Maxime  had  the  joy  of  seeing  that 
Sallenauve's  absence  in  itself  was  creating  a  prejudice 
against  him,  he  went  again  to  Rastignac  and  asked 
him  if  he  did  not  think  it  better  to  hasten  the  moment 
of  attack,  since  everything  seemed  so  favorable. 

This  time  Rastignac  was  much  more  explicit:  Sal- 
lenauve's absence  abroad  seemed  to  him  the  conduct 
of  a  man  who  feared  exposure  and  had  lost  his  head. 
He  therefore  advised  de  Trailles  to  have  the  petition 
sent  in  at  once,  and  he  made  no  difficulty  about  prom- 
ising his  assistance  to  a  conspiracy  which  appeared 
to  be  taking  color,  the  result  of  which  must  be,  in 
any  case,  a  very  pretty  scandal.  The  next  day  the 
first  trace  of  his  subterranean  influence  was  visible. 
The  order  of  the  day  in  the  Chamber  was  the  verifica- 
tion of  powers,  —  that  is,  the  admission  of  newly 
elected  members.     The  deputy  appointed  to  report  on 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  467 

the  elections  in  the  department  of  the  Aube  was  a 
strong  partisan  of  the  ministry,  and,  in  consequence 
of  a  confidential  communication  made  to  him  that 
morning,  the  following  paragraph  appeared  in  his 
report :  — 

"  The  action  of  the  electoral  college  of  Arcis  was  regular. 
Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  produced  in  proper  time  all  the 
necessary  papers  proving  his  eligibility ;  his  admission 
therefore  would  seem  to  present  no  difficulty.  But  rumors 
of  a  singular  nature  have  been  current  since  the  election  as 
to  the  name  and  identity  of  the  new  deputy ;  and,  in  sup- 
port of  these  rumors,  a.  petition  to  authorize  a  criminal 
prosecution  has  been  laid  before  the  president  of  the  Cham- 
ber. This  petition  states  an  extremely  serious  fact,  namely : 
that  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  has  usurped  the  name  he  bears ; 
and  this  usurpation,  being  made  by  means  of  an  official 
document,  assumes  the  character  of  forgery  committed  by 
substitution  of  person.  A  most  regrettable  cu-cumstance," 
continued  the  report,  "  is  the  absence  of  Monsieur  de  Salle- 
nauve, who  instead  of  instantly  contradicting  the  accusation 
made  against  him,  has  not  appeared  since  the  opening  of 
the  Chamber  at  any  of  its  sessions,  and  it  is  not  even  known 
where  he  is.  Under  these  circumstances,  his  admission,  the 
committee  think,  cannot  be  granted  ;  and  they  feel  it  there- 
fore their  duty  to  refer  the  matter  to  the  Chamber." 

Daniel  d'Arthfez,  a  deputy  of  the  legitimist  opposition, 
who  had  been  favorable  to  the  election  of  Sallenauve, 
hastened,  after  the  reading  of  this  report,  to  ask  for 
the  floor,  and  entreated  the  Chamber  to  remark  that  its 
adoption  would  be  wholly  unjustifiable. 

'*  The  point  for  the  committee  to  decide,"  he  said, 
"  was   the  regularity   of    the   election.       The   report 


458  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

distinctly  states  that  this  is  not  called  in  question.  The 
Chamber  can,  therefore,  do  only  one  thing ;  namely, 
admit  by  an  immediate  vote  the  validity  of  an  election 
about  which  no  irregularity  is  alleged.  To  bring  in  the 
question  of  authorizing  a  criminal  investigation  would 
be  an  abuse  of  power ;  because  by  not  allowing  dis- 
cussion or  defence,  and  by  dispensing  with  the  usual 
forms  of  procedure  which  guarantee  certain  rights  to 
a  party  implicated,  the  Chamber  would  be  virtually 
rejecting  the  action  of  the  electors  in  the  exercise  of 
their  sovereign  functions.  Every  one  can  see,  more- 
over," added  the  orator,  "that  to  grant  the  right  of 
criminal  investigation  in  this  connection  is  to  prejudge 
the  merits  of  the  case ;  the  presumption  of  innocence, 
which  is  the  right  of  every  man.  is  ignored,  —  where- 
as in  this  case  the  person  concerned  is  a  man  whose 
integrity  has  never  been  doubted,  and  who  has  just 
been  openly  honored  by  the  suffrages  of  his  fellow 
citizens." 

The  discussion  was  prolonged  for  some  time,  the 
ministerial  orators,  of  course,  taking  the  other  side, 
until  an  unfortunate  event  occurred.  The  senior 
deputy,  acting  as  president  (for  the  Chamber  was  not 
yet  constituted),  was  a  worn-out  old  man,  very  absent- 
minded,  and  wholly  unaccustomed  to  the  functions 
which  his  age  devolved  upon  him.  He  had  duly  re- 
ceived Monsieur  de  Sallenauve's  letter  requesting  leave 
of  absence  ;  and  had  he  recollected  to  communicate  it, 
as  in  duty  bound,  to  the  Chamber  at  the  proper  time, 
the  discussion  would  probably  have  been  nipped  in  the 
bud.  But  parliamentary  matters  are  apt  to  go  hap- 
hazard ;  when,  reminded  of  the  letter  by  the  discussion, 


The  De'puty  of  Arcis.  459 

he  produced  it,  and  when  the  Chamber  learned  that  the 
request  for  leave  of  absence  was  made  for  an  indefinite 
period  and  for  the  vague  purpose  of  ''  urgent  affairs," 
tlie  effect  was  lamentable. 

*'  It  is  plain,"  said  all  the  ministerial  party, 
"  that  he  has  gone  to  England  to  escape  an  in- 
vestigation ;  he  feared  the  result ;  he  feels  himself 
unmasked." 

This  view,  setting  aside  political  prejudice,  was 
shared  by  the  sterner  minds  of  all  parties,  who  refused 
to  conceive  of  a  man  not  hastening  to  defend  himself 
from  such  a  blasting  accusation.  In  short,  after  a  very 
keen  and  able  argument  from  the  attorney-general, 
Vinet,  who  had  taken  heart  on  finding  that  the 
accused  was  likely  to  be  condemned  by  default,  the 
question  of  adjournment  was  put  to  the  vote  and  passed, 
but  by  a  very  small  majority  ;  eight  days  being  granted 
to  the  said  deputy  to  appear  and  defend  himself." 

The  day  after  this  vote  was  passed  Maxime  de 
Trailles  wrote  to  Madame  Beauvisage  as  follows :  — 

Madame,  —  The  enemy  received  a  severe  check  yesterday. 
In  the  opinion  of  my  friend  Rastignac,  a  very  intelligent 
and  experienced  judge  in  parliamentary  matters,  Dorlange 
can  never  recover  from  the  blow,  no  matter  what  may  happen 
later.  If  we  cannot  succeed  in  producing  positive  proof  to 
support  the  statement  of  our  good  peasant-woman,  it  is  pos- 
sible that  this  rascal,  supposing  always  that  he  ventures  to 
1  ('turn  to  France,  may  be  admitted  to  the  Chamber.  But  if 
he  is,  he  can  only  drag  on  a  despised  and  miserable  exist- 
ence ;  he  will  be  driven  to  resign,  and  then  the  election  of 
Monsieur  Beauvisage  is  beyond  all  doubt ;  for  the  electors, 
ashamed  to  have  forsaken  him  for  such  a  rascal,  will  be 


460  The  Dejputy  of  Arcis. 

only  too  glad  to  reinstate  themselves  in  public  opinion  by 
the  choice  of  an  honorable  man -^  who  was,  in  fact,  their 
first  choice. 

It  is  to  your  rare  sagacity,  madame,  that  this  result  is  due ; 
for  without  that  species  of  second  sight  which  showed  you 
the  chances  hidden  in  the  revelation  of  that  woman,  we 
should  have  missed  our  best  weapon.  I  must  tell  you 
though  you  may  think  this  vanity,  that  neither  Rastignac 
nor  the  attorney-general,  in  spite  of  their  great  political 
acumen,  perceived  the  true  value  of  your  discovery ;  and  I 
myself,  if  I  had  not  had  the  good  fortune  of  your  acquaint- 
ance, and  thus  been  enabled  to  judge  of  the  great  value  of 
all  ideas  emanating  from  you,  even  I  might  have  shared  the 
indifference  of  the  two  statesmen  to  the  admirable  weapon 
which  you  have  placed  in  our  hands.  I  have  now  succeeded 
in  proving  to  Rastignac  the  shrewdness  and  perspicacity  you 
have  shown  in  this  matter,  and  he  sincerely  admires  you  for 
them.  Therefore,  madame,  when  I  have  the  happiness  of 
belonging  to  you  by  the  tie  we  proposed,  I  shall  not  have  to 
initiate  you  into  politics,  for  you  have  akeady  found  your 
way  there. 

Nothing  further  can  take  place  for  a  week,  which  is  the 
period  of  delay  granted  by  the  Chamber.  If  the  defaulter 
does  not  then  appear,  I  am  confident  his  election  will  be  an- 
nulled. You  can  easily  believe  that  between  now  and  then 
all  my  efforts  will  be  given  to  increase  the  feeling  in  the 
Chamber  against  him,  both  by  arguments  in  the  press  and 
by  private  conversations.  Rastignac  has  also  given  orders 
among  the  ministerial  adherents  to  that  effect.  We  may 
feel  confident,  therefore,  that  by  the  end  of  another  week  our 
enemy  will  find  public  opinion  solidly  against  him. 

Will  you  permit  me,  madame,  to  recall  myself  to  the 
memory  of  Mademoiselle  C^cile,  and  accept  yourself,  to- 
gether with  Monsieur  Beauvisage,  the  assurance  of  my  most 
respectful  sentiments. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  461 

A  hint  from  certain  quarters  given  to  the  minis- 
terial journals  now  began  to  surround  Sallenauve's 
name  with  an  atmosphere  of  disrespect  and  ridicule; 
insulting  insinuations  colored  his  absence  with  an 
appearance  of  escaping  the  charges.  The  effect  of 
these  attacks  was  all  the  greater  because  Sallenauve 
was  very  weakly  defended  by  his  political  co-religion- 
ists, which  was  scarcely  surprising.  Not  knowing 
how  to  explain  his  conduct,  the  Opposition  papers 
were  afraid  to  commit  themselves  in  favor  of  a  man 
whose  future  was  daily  becoming  more  nebulous. 

On  the  evening  before  the  day  on  which  the  time 
granted  for  an  explanation  would  expire,  Sallenauve 
being  still  absent,  a  ministerial  paper  published, 
under  the  heading  of  '*A  Lost  Deputy,"  a  very  witty 
and  insolent  article,  which  was  read  by  every  one 
and  created  a  great  sensation.  During  that  evening 
Madame  de  I'Estorade  went  to  see  Madame  de  Camps, 
whom  she  found  alone  with  her  husband.  She  was 
greatly  agitated,  and  said,  as  soon  as  she  entered  the 
room,  — 

"Have  you  read  that  infamous  article?" 

''No,"  replied  Madame  Octave,  ''but  Monsieur  de 
Camps  was  just  telling  me  about  it.  It  is  really 
shameful  that  the  ministry  should  not  only  counte- 
nance,  but  instigate  such  villanies." 

"I  am  half  crazy,"  said  Madame  de  TEstoriide; 
"the  whole  blame  rests  on  us." 

"That  is  saying  too  much,"  said  Madame  Octave. 

"No,"  said  her  husband,  "I  agree  with  madame;  all 
the  venom  of  this  affair  could  have  been  destroyed  by 
one  action  of  TEstorade's,  and  in  refusing  to  make  it 


462  The  De'puty  of  Arcis. 

he  is,  if  not  the  author,  at  least  the  accomplice  of  this 
slander." 

'^Your  wife  has  told  you  —  "  began  Madame  de 
I'Estorade  in  a  reproachful  tone. 

"Yes,"  said  Madame  de  Camps;  "it  was  necessary 
to  explain  to  my  husband  the  sort  of  madness  that 
seemed  to  have  taken  possession  of  M.  de  I'Estorade; 
but  what  I  said  to  him  was  not  unfaithful  to  any 
secret  that  concerned  you  personally." 

"Ah!  you  are  such  a  united  pair,"  said  Madame  de 
I'Estorade,  with  a  heavy  sigh.  "I  don't  regret  that 
you  have  told  all  that  to  your  husband;  in  fact,  two 
heads  are  better  than  one  to  advise  me  in  the  cruel 
position  in  which  I  am  placed.'* 

"What  has  happened?  "  asked  Madame  de  Camps. 

"My  husband  is  losing  his  head,"  replied  the 
countess.v  "I  don't  see  a  trace  of  his  old  moral  sense 
left  in  him.  Far  from  understanding  that  he  is,  as 
Monsieur  de  Camps  said  just  now,  the  accomplice  of 
the  shameful  attack  which  is  going  on,  and  that  he 
has  not,  like  those  who  started  it,  the  excuse  of 
ignorance,  he  actually  seems  to  take  delight  in  this 
wickedness.  Just  now  he  brought  me  that  vile  paper 
triumphantly,  and  I  could  scarcely  prevent  his  being 
very  angry  with  me  for  not  agreeing  with  his  opinion 
that  it  was  infinitely  witty  and  amusing." 

"That  letter  of  Monsieur  Gaston's  was  a  terrible 
shock  to  him,"  said  Madame  de  Camps,  —  "a  shock 
not  only  to  his  heart  but  to  his  body." 

"I  admit  that,"  said  her  husband;  "but,  hang  it! 
a  man  is  a  man,  and  he  ought  to  take  the  words  of  a 
maniac  for  what  they  are  worth." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  463 

''It  is  certainly  very  singular  that  Monsieur  de 
Salleuauve  does  not  return,"  said  Madame  Octave; 
"for  that  Joseph  Bricheteau,  to  whom  you  gave  his 
address,  must  have  written  to  him." 

"Oh!  "  cried  the  countess,  "there  's  fatality  in  the 
whole  thing.  To-morrow  the  question  of  confirming 
the  election  or  not  comes  up  in  the  Chamber;  and  if 
Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  Is  not  here  by  that  time,  the 
ministry  expect  to  annul  it." 

"It  is  infamous,"  said  Monsieur  de  Camps,  "and 
I  have  a  great  mind  to  go  myself  to  the  president  of 
the  Chamber,  and  tell  him  how  matters  are." 

"I  would  have  asked  you  to  do  so  at  the  risk  of  my 
husband  suspecting  my  interference,  but  one  thing 
restrained  me.  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  particularly 
desires  that  Monsieur  Gaston's  mental  condition  be 
not  made  public." 

"It  is  evident,"  said  Madame  de  Camps,  "that  to 
defend  him  in  that  way  would  go  against  his  wishes. 
After  all,  the  decision  against  him  in  the  Chamber  is 
very  doubtful,  whereas  Monsieur  Gaston's  madness, 
if  mentioned  publicly,  would  never  be  forgotten." 

"But  I  have  not  told  you  the  worst  so  far  as  I 
am  concerned,"  said  Madame  cte  I'Estorade.  "Just 
before  dinner  my  husband  imparted  to  me  an  abso- 
lutely Satanic  desire  of  his  —  order,  I  might  call  it." 

"What  was  it?"  asked  Madame  de  Camps,  anx- 
iously. 

"He  wishes  me  to  go  with  him  to  the  Chamber  to- 
morrow, —  to  the  gallery  reserved  for  tha  peers  of 
France,  —  and  listen  to  the  discussion." 

"He  is  actually,  as  you  say,  losing  his  head,"  cried 


464  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

Monsieur  de  Camps;  "he  is  like  Thomas  Diafoirus, 
proposing  to  take  his  fiancee  to  enjoy  a  dissection  —  " 

Madame  de  Camps  made  her  husband  a  sign  which 
meant,  "Don't  pour  oil  on  the  fire."  Then  she  asked 
the  countess  whether  she  had  tried  to  show  M.  de 
I'Estorade  the  impropriety  of  that  step. 

"The  moment  I  began  to  object,"  replied  the 
countess,  "he  was  angry,  and  said  I  must  be  very 
anxious  to  keep  up  our  intimacy  with  '  that  man  ' 
when  I  rejected  such  a  natural  opportunity  to  show 
publicly  that  the  acquaintance  was  at  an  end." 

"Well,  my  dear,  you  will  have  to  go,"  said  Madame 
de  Camps.  "The  peace  of  your  home  before  every- 
thing else!  Besides,  considering  all  things,  your 
presence  at  the  discussion  may  be  taken  as  a  proof 
of  kindly  interest." 

"For  sixteen  years,"  remarked  Monsieur  de  Camps, 
"you  have  ruled  and  governed  in  your  home;  and 
here,  at  last,  is  a  revolution  which  cruelly  overturns 
your  power." 

"Ah,  monsieur,  I  beg  you  to  believe  that  that 
sovereignty  —  which  I  always  sought  to  conceal  —  I 
never  used  arbitrarily." 

"As  if  I  did  not  know  that!  "  replied  Monsieur  de 
Camps,  taking  Madame  de  TEstorade's  hand  and 
pressing  it  affectionately.  "  I  am,  nevertheless,  of 
my  wife's  opinion:  you  will  have  to  drink  this 
cup." 

"But  I  shall  die  of  shame  in  listening  to  the  min- 
isterial infamies;  I  shall  feel  that  they  are  cutting 
the  throat  of  a  man  whom  two  words  from  me  could 
save." 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  466 

''  True,"  said  Monsieur  de  Camps,  ''  and  a  man,  too, 
who  has  done  you  a  vast  service.  But  you  must  choose  : 
do  you  prefer  to  bring  bell  into  your  home,  and  ex- 
asperate the  unhealthy  condition  of  your  husband's 
mind?'' 

*' Listen  to  me,  dearest,"  said  Madame  de  Camps. 
"  Tell  Monsieur  de  I'P^storade  that  I  want  to  go  to  this 
session,  and  ask  him  for  a  permit ;  don't  yield  the  point 
to  any  objections.  I  shall  then  be  there  to  take  care 
of  you,  and  perhaps  protect  you  from  yourself." 

'*  I  did  not  dare  ask  it  of  you,"  replied  Madame  de 
TEstorade.  ''  We  don't  usually  invite  friends  to  see 
us  commit  bad  actions ;  but  since  you  are  so  kind  as 
to  offer,  I  can  truly  say  I  shall  be  less  wretched  if  you 
are  with  me.  Now  good-bye ;  I  don't  want  my  hus- 
band to  find  me  out  when  he  comes  home.  He  is  dining 
with  Monsieur  de  Rastignac,  where,  no  doubt,  they  are 
plotting  for  to-morrow." 

*'  Yes,  go ;  and  I  will  write  you  a  note  in  the  course 
of  an  hour,  as  if  I  had  not  seen  you,  asking  you  to 
get  me  a  permit  for  to-morrow's  session,  which  I  am 
told  will  be  very  interesting." 

*'  To  be  reduced  to  conspiracy  !"  cried  Madame  de 
I'Estorade,  kissing  her  friend. 

"My  dear  love,"  said  Madame  de  Camps,  ''they 
say  the  life  of  a  Christian  is  a  struggle,  but  that  of  a 
woman  married  in  a  certain  way  is  a  pitched  battle. 
Have  patience  and  courage." 

So  saying,  the  two  friends  separated. 

The  next  day,  about  two  o'clock,  Madame  de  I'Esto- 
rade, accompanied  by  her  husband  and  Madame  Octave 
de  Camps,  took  their  places  in  the  gallery  reserved  for 

30 


466  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

the  members  of  the  peerage.  She  seemed  ill,  and  an- 
swered languidly  the  bows  and  salutations  that  were  ad- 
dressed to  her  from  all  parts  of  the  Chamber.  Madame 
de  Camps,  who  was  present  for  the  first  time  in  the 
parliamentary  precincts,  made  two  observations  :  first, 
she  objected  strongly  to  the  slovenly  costume  of  a 
great  many  of  the  "honorable  gentlemen;"  and  she 
was  also  amazed  at  the  number  of  bald  heads  she  looked 
down  upon  from  the  gallery.  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade 
took  pains  to  point  out  to  her  all  the  notabilities 
present :  first,  the  great  men  whom  we  need  not  men- 
tion, because  their  names  are  in  everybody's  memory ; 
next,  the  poet  Canalis,  whose  air  she  thought  Olympian  ; 
d'Arthez,  who  pleased  her  by  his  modesty  and  absence 
of  assumption ;  Vinet,  of  whom  she  remarked  that  he 
was  like  a  viper  in  spectacles  ;  Victorin  Hulot,  a  noted 
orator  of  the  Left  Centre.  It  was  some  time  before 
she  could  accustom  herself  to  the  hum  of  the  various 
conversations,  which  seemed  to  her  like  the  buzzing 
of  bees  around  their  hive;  but  the  thing  that  most 
amazed  her  was  the  general  aspect  of  this  assemblage 
of  legislators,  where  a  singular  laisser-aller  and  a  total 
absence  of  dignity  would  never  have  led  her  to  suppose 
she  was  in  the  hall  of  the  representatives  of  a  great 
people. 

It  was  written  that  on  this  day  no  pain  or  unpleas- 
antness should  be  spared  to  Madame  de  TEstorade. 
Just  before  the  sitting  began,  the  Marquise  d'Espard, 
accompanied  by  Monsieur  de  Ronquerolles,  entered  the 
peers'  gallery  and  took  her  seat  beside  the  countess. 
Though  meeting  constantly  in  society,  the  two  women 
could  not  endure  each  other.      Madame  de  I'Estorade 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  467 

despised  the  spirit  of  intrigue,  the  total  lack  of  prin- 
ciple, and  the  sour,  malevolent  nature  which  the 
marquise  covered  with  an  elegant  exterior;  and  the 
marquise  despised,  to  a  still  greater  degree,  what  she 
called  the  pot-cm-feu  virtues  of  Madame  de  I'Estorade. 
It  must  also  be  mentioned  that  Madame  de  TEstorade 
was  thirty-two  years  old  and  her  beauty  was  still  un- 
dimmed,  whereas  Madame  d'Espard  was  forty-four, 
and,  in  spite  of  the  careful  dissimulations  of  the  toilet, 
her  beauty  was  fairly  at  an  end. 

''  You  do  not  often  come  here,  I  think,"  said  Madame 
d'Espard,  after  the  usual  conventional  phrases  about 
the  j^^easure  of  their  meeting  had  YJassed. 

*'  I  never  come,"  replied  Madame  de  I'Estorade. 

**  And  I  am  most  assiduous,"  said  Madame  d'Es- 
pard. 

Then,  pretending  to  a  sudden  recollection,  she 
added, — 

'*  Ah!  I  forgot ;  you  have  a  special  interest,  I  think, 
on  this  occasion.  A  friend  of  yours  is  to  he  Judged,  is 
he  not?" 

"  Yes ;  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  has  been  to  our 
house  several  times." 

"  How  sad  it  is,'*  said  the  marquise,  '*  to  see  a  man 
who.  Monsieur  de  Ronquerolles  tells  me,  had  the  mak- 
ing of  a  hero  in  many  ways,  come  down  to  the  level  of 
the  correctional  police." 

''  His  crime  so  far,"  said  Madame  de  I'Estorade, 
dryly,  "  consists  solely  in  his  absence." 

**  At  any  rate,"  continued  the  marquise,  **  he  seems 
to  be  a  man  eaten  up  by  ambition.  Before  his  parlia- 
mentary attempt,  he  made,  as  you  doubtless  know,  a 


468  The  Deputy  of  Arcis, 

matrimonial  attempt  upon  the  Lantys,  which  ended  in 
the  beautiful  heiress  of  that  family,  into  whose  good 
graces  he  had  insinuated  himself,  being  sent  to  a 
convent." 

Madame  de  I'Estorade  was  not  much  surprised  at 
finding  that  this  history,  which  Sallenauve  had  told  her 
as  very  secret,  had  reached  the  knowledge  of  Madame 
d'Espard.  The  marquise  was  one  of  the  best  informed 
women  in  Paris  ;  her  salon,  as  an  old  academician  had 
said  mythologically,  was  the  Temple  of  Fame. 

"  I  think  the  sitting  is  about  to  begin,"  said  Ma- 
dame de  I'Estorade;  fearing  some  blow  from  the 
claws  of  the  marquise,  she  was  eager  to  put  an  end 
to  the  conversation. 

The  president  had  rung  his  bell,  the  deputies  were 
taking  their  seats,  the  curtain  was  about  to  rise.  As  a 
faithful  narrator  of  the  session  we  desire  our  readers 
to  attend,  we  think  it  safer  and  better  in  every  way  to 
copy  verbatim  the  report  of  the  debate  as  given  in  one 
of  the  morning  papers  of  the  following  day. 

Chamber  of  Deputies. 
In  the  chair,  M.  Cointet  (vice-president). 
(Sitting  of  May  28.) 

At  two  o'clock  the  president  takes  his  seat. 

M.  the  Keeper  of  the  Seals,  M.  the  minister  of  the 
Interior,  M.  the  minister  of  Public  Works,  are  on  the 
ministerial  bench. 

The  minutes  of  the  last  session  are  read,  approved, 
and  accepted. 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  469 

The  order  of  the  day  is  the  verification  of  the  powers 
and  the  admission  of  the  deputy  elected  by  the  arron- 
dissement  of  Arcis-sur-Aube. 

The  President.  —  M.  the  reporter,  from  the  Com- 
mittee on  the  elections  of  the  department  of  the  Aube, 
has  the  floor. 

The  Reporter.  — Gentlemen,  the  singular  and  regret- 
table situation  in  which  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  has 
l)laced  himself  has  not  terminated  in  the  manner  that 
was  hoped  and  expected  last  week.  The  period  of 
delay  expired  yesterday ;  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  con- 
tinues to  absent  himself  from  your  sittings,  and  no 
letter  has  reached  M.  le  president  asking  for  further 
leave  of  absence.  This  indifference  to  the  functions 
which  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  appeared  to  have  soli- 
cited with  so  much  eagerness  [slight  agitation  on  the 
Left]  would  be,  in  any  case,  a  grave  mistake;  but 
when  connected  with  an  accusation  that  seriously  com- 
promises the  deputy  elect,  it  must  be  regarded  as 
altogether  unfortunate  for  his  reputation.  [Mur- 
murs on  the  Left.  Approbation  from  the  Centre.] 
Compelled  to  search  for  the  solution  of  a  difficulty 
which  may  be  said  to  be  without  precedent  in  parlia- 
mentary annals,  your  committee,  in  the  adoption  of 
suitable  measures,  finds  itself  divided  into  two  very 
distinct  opinions.  The  minority  whom  I  represent  — 
tlie  committee  consisting  of  but  three  members  — 
thinks  that  it  ought  to  submit  to  you  a  resolution  which 
I  shall  call  radical,  and  which  has  for  its  object  the 
cutting  short  of  the  difficulty  by  returning  the  question 
to  its  natural  judges.  Annul  hie  et  nunc  the  election 
of  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve,  and  send  him  back  to  the 


470  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

voters  by  whom  he  was  elected  and  of  whom  he  is 
so  unfaithful  a  representative.  Such  is  one  of  the 
solutions  I  have  the  honor  to  present  to  you.  [Agitation 
on  the  Left.]  The  majority,  on  the  contrary,  are  of 
opinion  that  the  will  of  the  electors  cannot  be  too 
highly  respected,  and  that  the  faults  of  a  man  honored 
by  their  confidence  ought  not  to  be  discussed  until  the 
utmost  limits  of  forbearance  and  indulgence  have  been 
passed.  Consequently  your  committee  instruct  me  to 
suggest  that  you  grant  to  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  a 
further  delay  of  fifteen  days  [murmurs  from  the  Centre  ; 
"Very  good!  very  good!"  from  the  Left];  being 
satisfied  that  if  after  that  delay  Monsieur  de  Salle- 
nauve does  not  present  himself  or  give  any  other  sign 
of  existence,  it  will  be  suflScient  proof  that  he  has 
thrown  up  his  election,  and  the  Chamber  need  not  be 
dragged  on  his  account  into  irritating  and  useless 
debates.     [Murmurs  of  various  kinds.] 

M.  le  Colonel  Franchessini,  who  during  the  fore- 
going speech  was  sitting  on  the  ministers'  bench  in 
earnest  conversation  with  the  minister  of  Public  Works, 
here  demanded  the  floor. 

The  President.  —  M.  de  Canalis  has  already  asked 
for  it. 

M.  de  Canalis.  —  Gentlemen,  M.  de  Sallenauve  is 
one  of  those  bold  men  who,  like  myself,  are  convinced 
that  politics  are  not  forbidden  fruit  to  any  form  of 
intellect,  and  that  in  the  poet,  in  the  artist,  as  well 
as  in  the  magistrate,  the  administrator,  the  lawyer,  the 
physician,  and  the  property-holder,  may  be  found  the 
stuff  that  makes  a  statesman.  In  virtue  of  this  com- 
munity of  opinion,  M.   de  Sallenauve  has  my  entire 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis,  471 

sympathy,  and  no  one  can  be  surprised  to  see  me  mount 
this  tribune  to  support  the  proposal  of  the  majority  of 
your  committee.  I  cannot,  however,  agree  to  their 
final  conchision ;  and  the  idea  of  our  colleague  being 
declared,  without  discussion,  dismissed  from  this 
Chamber  through  the  single  fact  of  his  absence,  pro- 
longed without  leave,  is  repugnant  to  m}^  reason  and 
also  to  my  conscience.  You  are  told  :  ' '  The  absence 
of  M.  de  Sallenauve  is  all  the  more  reprehensible  be- 
cause he  is  under  the  odium  of  a  serious  accusation." 
But  suppose  this  accusation  is  the  very  cause  of  his 
absence  —  [*'  Ha  !  ha  !  "  from  the  Centre,  and  laugh- 
ter.] Allow  me  to  say,  gentlemen,  that  I  am  not, 
perhaps,  quite  so  artless  as  Messieurs  the  laughers 
imagine.  I  have  one  blessing,  at  any  rate :  ignoble 
interpretations  do  not  come  into  my  mind ;  and  that 
M.  de  Sallenauve,  with  the  eminent  position  he  has 
filled  in  the  world  of  art,  should  seek  to  enter  the 
world  of  politics  by  means  of  a  crime,  is  a  supposition 
which  I  cannot  admit  a  priori.  Around  a  birth  like 
his  two  hideous  spiders  called  slander  and  intrigue 
have  every  facility  to  spread  their  toils ;  and  far  from 
admitting  that  he  has  fled  before  the  accusation  that 
now  attacks  him,  I  ask  myself  whether  his  absence 
does  not  mean  that  he  is  now  engaged  in  collecting  the 
elements  of  his  defence.  [Left:  *'Very  good!" 
"That's  right."  Ironical  laughter  in  the  Centre.] 
Under  that  supposition  —  in  my  opinion  most  probable 
—  so  far  from  arraigning  him  in  consequence  of  this 
absence,  ought  we  not  rather  to  consider  it  as  an  act 
of  deference  to  the  Chamber  whose  deliberations  he 
did  not  feel  worthy  to  sliare  until  he  found  himself 
in  a  position  to  confound  his  calumniators? 


472  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

A  Voice.  —  He  wants  leave  of  absence  for  ten  years, 
like  Telemachus,  to  search  for  his  father.  [General 
laughter.] 

M,  de  Canalis.  —  I  did  not  expect  so  poetical  an 
interruption ;  but  since  the  memory  of  the  Odyssey 
has  been  thus  evoked,  I  shall  ask  the  Chamber  to 
kindly  remember  that  Ulysses,  though  disguised  as  a 
beggar  and  loaded  with  insults,  was  yet  able  to  string 
his  bow  and  easily  get  the  better  of  his  enemies. 
[Violent  murmurs  from  the  Centre.]  I  vote  for  leave 
of  absence  for  fifteen  days,  and  that  the  Chamber  be 
again  consulted  at  the  expiration  of  that  time. 

M.  le  Colonel  Franchessini.  —  I  do  not  know  if  the 
last  speaker  intended  to  intimidate  the  Chamber,  but, 
for  my  part,  such  arguments  have  very  little  power 
upon  me,  and  I  am  always  ready  to  send  them  back 
whence  they  came.      [Left :    "  Come  !  come  !  "] 

The  President.  —  Colonel,  no  provocations  ! 

M.  le  Colonel  Franchessini.  —  I  am,  however,  of  the 
opinion  of  the  speaker  who  has  preceded  me  ;  I  do  not 
think  that  the  delinquent  has  fled  to  escape  the  accusa- 
tion against  him.  Neither  that  accusation,  nor  the 
effect  it  will  produce  upon  your  minds,  nor  even  the 
quashing  of  his  election  would  be  able  at  this  mo- 
ment to  occupy  his  mind.  Do  you  wish  to  know  what 
M.  de  Sallenauve  is  doinsj  in  England?  Then  read 
the  English  papers.  For  the  last  week  they  have  rung 
with  the  praises  of  a  new  prima  donna  who  has  just 
made  her  first  appearance  at  the  London  opera-house. 
[Violent  murmurs ;   interruption.] 

A  Voice.  —  Such  gossip  is  unworthy  of  this  Chamber ! 

M.  le  Colonel  Frarichessini.  —  Gentlemen,  being  more 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  473 

accustomed  to  the  frankness  of  camps  than  to  the  reti- 
cence of  these  precincts,  I  may  perhaps  have  commit- 
ted the  impropriety  of  thinking  aloud.  The  preceding 
speaker  said  to  you  that  he  believed  M.  de  Sallenauve 
was  employed  in  collecting  his  means  of  defence ; 
well,  I  do  not  say  to  you  ''  I  believe,"  I  tell  you  I 
know  that  a  rich  stranger  succeeded  in  substituting 
his  protection  for  that  which  Phidias,  our  colleague, 
was  bestowing  on  his  handsome  model,  an  Italian  wo- 
man—  [Fresh  interruption.  "  Order  !  order !  "  '^  This 
is  intolerable  !  "  ] 

A  Voice.  —  M.  le  president,  silence  the  speaker ! 

Colonel  Franchessini  crosses  his  arms  and  waits  till 
the  tumult  subsides. 

The  President,  —  I  request  the  speaker  to  keep  to 
the  question. 

M.  le  Colonel  Franchessini.  —  The  question !  I  have 
not  left  it.  But,  inasmuch  as  the  Chamber  refuses  to 
hear  me,  I  declare  that  I  side  with  the  minority  of  the 
committee.  It  seems  to  me  very  proper  to  send  M. 
de  Sallenauve  back  to  his  electors  in  order  to  know 
whether  they  intended  to  send  a  deputy  or  a  lover  to 
this  Chamber —  ["Order!  order!  "  Loud  disturbance 
on  the  Left.     The  tumult  increases.] 

M.  de  Canalis  hurries  to  the  tribune. 

The  President.  —  M.  le  ministre  of  Public  Works 
has  asked  for  the  floor ;  as  minister  of  the  king  he  has 
the  first  right  to  be  heard. 

M.  de  Rastignac.  —  It  has  not  been  without  remon- 
strance on  my  part,  gentlemen,  that  this  scandal  has 
been  brought  to  your  notice.  I  endeavored,  in  the 
name  of  the  long  friendship  which  unites  me  to  Colo- 


474  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

nel  Franchessini,  to  persuade  him  not  to  speak  on  this 
delicate  subject,  lest  his  parliamentary  inexperience, 
aggravated  in  a  measure  by  his  witty  facility  of 
speech,  should  lead  him  to  some  very  regrettable  in- 
discretion. Such,  gentlemen,  was  the  subject  of  the 
little  conversation  you  may  have  seen  that  he  held 
with  me  on  my  bench  before  he  asked  for  the  floor ; 
and  I  myself  have  asked  for  the  same  privilege  only 
in  order  to  remove  from  your  minds  all  idea  of  my 
complicity  in  the  great  mistake  he  has  just,  as  I  think, 
committed  by  condescending  to  the  private  details  he 
has  thought  fit  to  relate  to  this  assembly.  But  as, 
against  my  intention,  and  I  may  add  against  my  will, 
I  have  entered  the  tribune,  the  Chamber  will  permit 
me,  perhaps,  —  although  no  ministerial  interest  is  here 
concerned,  —  to  say  a  few  words.  [Cries  from  the 
Centre  :"  Go  on  !  "    "Speak!"] 

M.  le  ministre  then  went  on  to  say  that  the  con- 
duct of  the  absent  deputy  showed  contempt  for  the 
Chamber;  he  was  treating  it  lightly  and  cavalierly. 
M.  de  Sallenauve  had  asked  for  leave  of  absence ;  but 
how  or  where  had  he  asked  for  it?  From  a  foreign 
country !  That  is  to  say,  he  began  by  taking  it,  and 
then  asked  for  it !  Did  he  trouble  himself,  as  is  usual 
in  such  cases,  to  give  a  reason  for  the  request?  No; 
he  merely  says,  in  his  letter  to  your  president,  that  he 
is  forced  to  absent  himself  on  "  urgent  business,"  — 
a  very  convenient  excuse,  on  which  the  Chamber  might 
be  depopulated  of  half  its  members.  But,  supposing 
that  M.  de  Sallenauve's  business  was  really  urgent, 
and  that  he  thought  it  of  a  nature  not  to  be  explained 
in  a  letter  that  would  necessarily  be  made  public,  why 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  475 

had  he  not  written  confidentially  to  the  president,  or 
even  requested  a  friend  in  some  responsible  position, 
whose  simple  word  would  have  sufficed,  to  assure  the 
Chamber  of  the  necessity  of  the  deputy's  absence  with- 
out requiring  any  statement  of  private  reasons  ? 

At  this  point  M.  de  Rastignac's  remarks  were  inter- 
rupted by  a  commotion  in  the  corridor  to  the  right. 
Several  deputies  left  their  seats ;  others  jumped  upon 
the  benches,  apparently  endeavoring  to  see  something. 
The  minister,  after  turning  to  the  president,  from  whom 
he  seemed  to  be  asking  an  explanation,  went  back  to 
the  ministerial  bench,  where  he  was  immediately  sur- 
rounded by  a  number  of  the  deputies  of  the  Centre, 
among  whom,  noticeable  for  the  vehemence  of  his 
gestures,  was  M.  le  procureur-general  Vinet.  Groups 
formed  in  the  audience  chamber ;  the  sitting  was,  in 
fact,  informally  suspended. 

After  a  few  moments'  delay  M.  le  president  rings 
his  bell. 

The  Ushers.  —  Take  your  seats,  gentlemen. 

The  deputies  hasten  on  all  sides  to  do  so. 

The  President.  —  M.  de  Sallenauve  has  the  floor. 

M.  de  Sallenauve,  who,  during  the  few  moments 
that  the  sitting  was  interrupted  by  his  entrance,  has 
been  talking  with  M.  de  Canalis  and  M.  d'Arth^z,  goes 
to  the  tribune.  His  manner  is  modest,  but  he  shows 
no  sign  of  embarrassment.  Every  one  is  struck  by 
his  resemblance  to  the  portraits  of  one  of  the  most 
fiery  of  the  revolutionary  orators. 

A  Voice.  —  It  is  Danton  —  without  the  small-pox ! 

M.  de  Sallenauve.  —  [Profound  silence.]  Gentle- 
men,  I  do  not  misjudge  my  parliamentary  value;  I 


476  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

know  that  the  persecution  directed  apparently  against 
me  personally  is,  in  point  of  fact,  aimed  at  the  politi- 
cal opinions  I  have  the  honor  to  represent.  But,  how- 
ever that  may  be,  my  election  seems  to  have  been 
viewed  by  the  ministry  as  a  matter  of  some  impor- 
tance. In  order  to  oppose  it,  a  special  agent  and  spe- 
cial journalists  were  sent  to  Arcis ;  and  a  humble 
employe  under  government,  with  a  salary  of  fifteen 
hundred  francs,  was  dismissed,  after  twenty  years  of 
faithful  and  honorable  service,  for  having  aided  in  my 
success.  [Loud  murmurs  from  the  Centre.]  I  thank 
my  honorable  interrupters,  feeling  sure  that  their  loud 
disapprobation  is  given  to  this  strange  dismissal,  which 
is  not  open  to  the  slightest  doubt.  [Laughter  on  the 
Left.]  As  for  me,  gentlemen,  who  could  not  be  dis- 
missed, I  have  been  attacked  with  another  weapon, 
—  sagacious  calumny,  combined  with  my  fortunate 
absence  — 

Tlie  Minister  of  Public  Works.  —  Of  course  the 
government  sent  you  out  of  the  country  ! 

M.  de  Sallenauve.  —  No,  Monsieur  le  ministre.  I 
do  not  attribute  my  absence  to  either  your  influence  or 
your  suggestions ;  it  was  necessitated  by  imperious 
duty,  and  it  had  no  other  instigation  or  motive.  But, 
as  to  the  part  w^hich  you  have  really  taken  in  the 
denunciation  set  on  foot  against  me,  I  am  about  to 
tell  the  facts,  and  the  Chamber  will  consider  them. 
[Close  attention.]  The  law,  in  order  to  protect  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  deputy,  directs  that  no  criminal  prose- 
cution can  be  begun  against  a  member  of  the  national 
representation  without  the  preliminary  consent  of  the 
Chamber ;  this  fact  has  been  turned  with  great  adroit- 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  ill 

ness  against  rae.  If  the  complaint  had  been  laid  be- 
fore the  magistrates,  it  could  not  have  been  admitted 
even  for  an  instant ;  it  is  simply  a  bare  charge,  not 
supported  by  evidence  of  any  kind ;  and  I  liave  never 
heard  that  the  public  authorities  are  in  the  habit  of 
prosecuting  citizens  on  the  mere  allegation  of  the 
first-comer.  We  must  therefore  admire  the  subtlety 
of  mind  which  instantly  perceived  that,  by  petitioning 
you  for  leave  to  prosecute,  all  the  benefits  of  the  ac- 
cusation, politically  speaking,  would  be  obtained  with- 
out encountering  the  difficulty  I  have  mentioned  in 
the  courts.  [Excitement.]  Now,  to  what  able  par- 
liamentary tactician  must  we  ascribe  the  honor  of  this 
invention?  You  know  already,  gentlemen,  that  it  is 
due  ostensibly  to  a  woman,  a  peasant-woman,  one 
who  labors  for  her  living ;  hence  the  conclusion  is  that 
the  peasant-women  of  Champagne  have  an  intellectual 
superiority  of  which,  up  to  this  time,  neither  you  nor 
I  were  at  all  aware.  [Laughter.]  It  must  be  said, 
however,  that  before  coming  to  Paris  to  lodge  her 
complaint,  this  woman  had  an  interview  with  the 
Mayor  of  Arcis,  my  opponent  on  the  ministerial  side 
in  the  late  election.  From  this  conference  she  ob- 
tained certain  lights.  To  which  we  must  add  that 
the  mayor,  taking  apparently  much  interest  in  the 
charge  to  be  brought  against  me,  agreed  to  pay  the 
costs,  not  only  of  the  peasant-woman's  trip  to  Paris, 
but  also  those  of  the  village  practitioner  by  whom  she 
was  accompanied.  [Left:  *'Ha!  ha!"]  This  supe- 
rior woman  having  arrived  in  Paris,  with  whom  did 
she  immediately  communicate?  With  the  special  agent 
sent  down  to  Arcis  by  the  government  to  insure  the 


478  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

success  of  the  ministerial  candidate.  And  who  drew 
up  the  petition  to  this  honorable  Chamber  for  the 
necessary  authority  to  proceed  to  a  criminal  prosecu- 
tion? Not  precisely  the  special  ministerial  agent 
himself,  but  a  barrister  under  his  dictation,  and  after 
a  breakfast  to  which  the  peasant-woman  and  her 
adviser  were  invited  in  order  to  furnish  the  necessary 
information.     [Much  excitement.     "Hear!  hear!"] 

The  Minister  of  Public  Works  from  his  seat.  —  With- 
out discussing  the  truth  of  these  statements,  as  to 
which  I  have  personally  no  knowledge,  I  affirm  upon 
my  honor  that  the  government  is  completely  ignorant 
of  the  proceedings  now  related,  which  it  blames  and 
disavows  in  the  most  conclusive  manner. 

M.  de  Sallenauve,  —  After  the  formal  declaration 
which  I  have  had  the  good  fortune  to  evoke  it  would  ill 
become  me,  gentlemen,  to  insist  on  tracing  the  respon- 
sibility for  this  intrigue  back  to  the  government.  But 
what  I  have  already  said  will  seem  to  you  natural 
when  you  remember  that,  as  I  entered  this  hall,  the 
minister  of  Public  Works  was  in  the  tribune,  taking 
part,  in  a  most  unusual  manner,  in  a  discussion  on 
discipline  wholly  outside  of  his  department,  and  en- 
deavoring to  persuade  you  that  I  had  conducted 
myself  towards  this  honorable  body  with  a  total  want 
of  reverence. 

The  minister  of  Public  Works  said  a  few  words 
which  did  not  reach  us.     Great  disturbance. 

Jf.  Victorin  Hulot.  —  M.  le  president,  have  the 
goodness  to  request  the  minister  of  Public  Works  not 
to  interrupt  the  speaker.     He  can  answer. 

M.  de  Sallenauve.  —  According  to  M.  le  Comte  de 


The  Dejputy  of  Arcis,  479 

Rastignac,  I  showed  essential  disrespect  to  the  Cham- 
ber by  asking,  in  a  foreign  country,  for  leave  of 
absence,  which  it  was  obvious  I  had  already  taken 
before  making  my  request.  But,  in  his  extreme  desire 
to  find  me  to  blame,  the  minister  lost  sight  of  the  fact 
that  at  the  time  1  left  France  the  Chamber  had  not 
met,  no  president  existed,  and  therefore  in  making  my 
request  at  that  time  to  the  president  of  this  assembly 
I  should  simply  have  addressed  a  pure  abstraction. 
[Left:  "True!"]  As  for  the  insufficiency  of  the 
motives  with  which  I  supported  my  request,  I  regret 
to  have  to  say  to  the  Chamber  that  I  cannot  be  more 
explicit  even  now ;  because  in  revealing  the  true  cause 
of  my  absence  I  should  betray  the  secret  of  an  honor- 
able man,  and  not  my  own.  I  did  not  conceal  from 
myself  that  by  this  reticence  I  exposed  my  proceedings 
to  mistaken  interpretations,  —  though  I  certainly  did 
not  expect  it  to  give  rise  to  accusations  as  burlesque 
as  they  are  odious.  [Much  excitement.]  In  point  of 
fact,  I  was  so  anxious  not  to  neglect  any  of  the  duties 
of  my  new  position  that  I  did  precisely  what  the 
minister  of  Public  Works  reproaches  me  for  not 
doing.  I  selected  a  man  in  a  most  honorable  position, 
who  was,  like  myself,  a  repository  of  the  secret  I  am 
unable  to  divulge,  and  I  requested  him  to  make  all 
necessary  explanations  to  the  president  of  this  Cham- 
ber. But,  calumny  having  no  doubt  worked  upon  his 
mind,  that  lionorable  person  must  have  thouglit  it 
compromising  to  his  name  and  dignity  to  do  me  this 
service.  The  danger  to  me  being  now  over,  I  shall 
not  betray  his  prudent  incognito.  Though  I  was  far 
indeed   from    expecting    this    calculating   selfishness, 


480  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

which  has  painfully  surprised  and  wounded  me,  I 
shall  be  careful  to  keep  this  betrayal  of  friendship 
between  myself  and  his  own  conscience,  which  alone 
shall  reproach  him  for  the  wrong  he  has  done  me. 

At  this  moment  a  disturbance  occurred  in  the  peers' 
gallery ;  a  lady  had  fainted ;  and  several  deputies, 
among  them  a  physician,  left  the  hall  hastily.  The 
sitting  was  momentarily  suspended. 

The  President.  —  Ushers,  open  the  ventilators.  It 
is  want  of  air  that  has  caused  this  unfortunate  acci- 
dent. M.  de  Sallenauve,  be  good  enough  to  resume 
your  speech. 

M.  de  Sallenauve. — Two  words,  gentlemen,  and  I 
have  finished.  I  think  the  petition  to  authorize  a 
criminal  prosecution  has  already  lost  something  of  its 
weight  in  the  minds  of  my  least  cordial  colleagues. 
But  I  have  here  a  letter  from  the  Romilly  peasant- 
woman,  my  relation,  duly  signed  and  authenticated, 
withdrawing  her  charge  and  confirming  all  th^  ex- 
planations I  have  just  had  the  honor  to  give  you.  I 
might  read  this  letter  aloud  to  you,  but  I  think  it  more 
becoming  to  place  it  in  the  hands  of  M.  le  president. 
["Very  good!  very  good !  "]  As  for  my  illegal  ab- 
sence, I  returned  to  Paris  early  this  morning,  and  I 
could  have  been  in  my  seat  at  the  opening  of  the 
Chamber;  but,  as  M.  de  Canalis  has  told  you,  I  had  it 
much  at  heart  not  to  appear  in  this  hall  until  I  could 
disperse  the  cloud  which  has  so  strangely  appeared 
around  my  reputation.  It  has  taken  me  the  whole 
morning  to  obtain  these  papers.  And  now,  gentlemen, 
you  have  to  decide  whether  a  few  hours'  delay  in 
taking  his  seat  in  this  Chamber  justifies  you  in  send- 


The  Deputy  of  Arcis.  481 

ing  a  colleague  back  to  his  electors.  But  after  all, 
whatever  is  done,  whether  some  persist  in  thinking  me 
a  forger,  or  a  libertine,  oy  merely  a  negligent  deputy, 
I  feel  no  anxiety  about  the  verdict  of  my  electors.  I 
can  confidently  assert  that  after  a  delay  of  a  few  weeks 
I  shall  return  to  you. 

Ones  on  all  sides.  —  The  vote !  the  vote ! 

On  leaving  the  tribune  M.  de  Sallenauve  receives 
many  congratulations. 

The  President.  —  1  put  to  vote  the  admission  of 
M.  de  Sallenauve  as  the  deputy  elected  by  the  arron- 
dissement  of  Arcis. 

Nearly  the  whole  Chamber  rises  and  votes  the  ad- 
mission ;  a  few  deputies  of  the  Centre  alone  abstain 
from  taking  part  in  the  demonstration. 

M.  de  Sallenauve  is  admitted  and  takes  the  oath. 

The  President.  —  The  order  of  the  day  calls  for  the 
reading  of  the  Address  to  the  Throne,  but  the  chair- 
man of  the  committee  appointed  to  prepare  it  informs 
me  that  the  document  in  question  cannot  be  communi- 
cated to  the  Chamber  before  to-morrow.  Nothing  else 
being  named  in  the  order  of  the  day,  I  declare  this 
sitting  adjourned. 

The  Chamber  rose  at  half-past  four  o'clock. 


Note.  —  "  The  Deputy  of  Arcis,"  of  which  Balzac  wrote 
and  published  the  first  part  in  1847  was  left  unfinished  at 
his  death.  He  designated  M.  Charles  Rabou,  editor  of  the 
"  Revue  de  Paris,"  as  the  person  to  take  his  notes  and  pre- 
pare the  rest  of  the  volume  for  the  press.  It  is  instructive 
to  a  student  of  Balzac  to  see  how  disconnected  and  out  of 
proportion  the  story  becomes  in  these  latter  parts,  —  show- 

31 


482  The  Deputy  of  Arcis. 

ing  plainly  that  the  master's  hand  was  in  the  habit  of 
pruning  away  half,  if  not  more,  of  what  it  had  written,  or 
—  to  change  the  metaphor  and  give  the  process  in  his  own 
language  —  that  he  put  les  grands  pots  dans  les  petits  pots,  the 
quarts  into  the  pint  pots.  "  If  a  thing  can  be  done  in  one 
line  instead  of  two,"  he  says,  "  I  try  to  do  it." 

Some  parts  of  this  conclusion  are  evidently  added  by 
M.  Rabou,  and  are  not  derived  from  Balzac  at  all,  —  es- 
pecially the  unnecessary  reincarnation  of  Vautrin.  There  is 
no  trace  of  the  master's  hand  here.  The  character  is  made 
silly  and  puerile,  and  is  so  out  of  keeping  with  Balzac's 
strong  portrait,  which  never  weakens,  that  the  translator  has 
thought  best,  in  justice  to  Vautrin,  to  omit  all  that  is  not 
absolutely  necessary  to  connect  the  story.  —  Tr. 


THE   END. 


Balzac  tn  English. 


PIERRETTE 

AND 

Thk  Vicar    ok   Tours. 

BY   HONORS   DE   BALZAC. 
Translated  by  Katharine  Prescott  Wormeley, 


In  Pierrette,  which  Miss  Wormeley  has  added  to  her  series  of  felidtoua 
translations  from  the  French  master-fictionists,  Balzac  has  made  within 
brief  compass  a  marvellously  sympathetic  study  of  the  martyrdom  of  a 
young  girl.  Pierrette,  a  flower  of  Brittany,  beautiful,  pale,  and  fair  and 
sweet,  is  taken  as  an  undesired  charge  by  sordid-minded  cousins  in  Pro- 
vins,  and  like  an  exotic  transplanted  into  a  harsh  and  sour  so»l  she  withers 
and  fades  under  the  cruel  conditions  of  her  new  environment.  Inciden« 
tally  Balzac  depicts  in  vivid  colors  the  struggles  of  two  shoD-keepers  —  a 
brother  and  sister,  who  have  amassed  a  little  fortune  in  Paris  —  to  gain  a 
foothold  among  the  bourgeoisie  of  their  native  town.  These  two  become 
the  prey  of  conspirators  for  political  advancement,  and  the  rivalries  thus 
engendered  shake  the  small  provincial  society  to  its  centre.  Put  the 
charm  of  the  tale  is  in  the  portrayal  of  the  character  of  Pierretle,  who 
understands  only  how  to  love,  and  who  cannot  live  in  an  atmosphere  of 
suspicion  and  ill-treatment.  The  story  is  of  course  sad,  but  its  fidelity  to 
life  and  the  pathos  of  it  are  elements  of  unfailing  interest.  Balzac  brings 
a  score  or  more  of  people  upon  the  stage,  shows  each  one  as  he  or  she 
really  is  both  in  outward  appearance  and  inward  nature,  and  then  allows 
motives  and  circumstances  to  work  out  an  inevitable  result.  To  watch 
this  process  is  like  being  present  at  some  wonderful  chemical  experiment 
where  the  ingredients  are  mixed  with  a  deft  and  careful  hand,  and  combine 
to  produce  effects  of  astonishing  significance.  The  social  genesis  of  the 
old  maid  in  her  most  abhorrent  form  occupies  much  of  Balzac's  attention 
in  Pierrette,  and  this  theme  also  has  a  place  in  the  story  of  The  Vicar  of 
Tours,  bound  up  in  this  same  volume.  The  vicar  is  a  simple-minded 
priest  who  is  happy  enough  till  he  takes  up  his  quarters  with  an  old  maid 
landlady,  who  pesters  and  annoys  him  in  many  ways,  and  finally  sends  him 
forth  despoiled  of  his  worldly  goods  and  a  laughing-stock  for  the  country- 
side. There  is  a  great  deal  of  humor  in  the  tale,  but  one  must  confess 
that  the  humor  is  of  a  rather  heavy  sort,  it  being  weighed  down  by  a  domi- 
nant satirical  purpose.  —  The  Beacon. 

One  handsome  i2mo  volume,  uniform  with  "  P^re  Goriot," 
**  The  Duchesse  de  Langeais,"  "  Cesar  Birotteau,"  "  Eugenie 
Grandet,"  "  Cousin  Pons,'^  "  The  Country  Doctor,"  "  The  Tw« 
Brothers,"  and  "  The  Alkahest."  Half  morocco,  French  style 
Price,  $1.50. 

ROBERTS  BROTHERS,  Publishers,  Bostom. 


Messrs.  Roberts  Brothers'  Publications. 


■BKSJLKQ,    IN    ENGLISH. 


THE  BROTHERHOOD  OF  CONSOLATION. 

{L'ENVERS  DE  L'HISTOIRE  CONJEMPORAINE.) 

By   HONORE   DE   BALZAC. 

I.  Madame  de  la  Chanterie.      2.   The  Initiate.      Translated  by 
Katharine  Prescott  Wormeley.     i2nio.     Half  Russia.     Price, 

$1.50. 

There  is  no  book  of  Balzac  which  is  informed  by  a  loftier  spirit  than 
'*  L'Envers  de  I'Histoire  Contemporaine,"  which  has  just  been  added  by  Miss 
Wormeley  to  her  admirable  series  of  translations  under  the  title,  *'  The  Brother- 
hood of  Consolation."  The  title  which  is  given  to  the  translation  is,  to  our 
thinking,  a  happier  one  than  that  which  the  work  bears  in  the  original,  since,  after 
all,  the  political  and  historical  portions  of  the  book  are  only  the  background  of  the 
other  and  more  absorbing  theme,  —  the  development  of  the  brotherhood  over 
which  Madame  de  la  Chanterie  presided.  It  is  true  that  there  is  about  it  all 
something  theatrical,  something  which  shows  the  French  taste  for  making  godli- 
ness itself  histrionically  effective,  that  quality  of  mind  which  would  lead  a  Parisian 
to  criticise  the  coming  of  the  judgment  angels  if  their  entrance  were  not  happily 
arranged  and  properly  executed  ;  but  in  spite  of  this  there  is  an  elevation  such  as 
it  is  rare  to  meet  with  in  literature,  and  especially  in  the  literature  of  Balzac's  age 
and  land.  The  story  is  admirably  told,  and  the  figure  of  the  Baron  Bourlac  is 
really  noble  in  its  martyrdom  of  self-denial  and  heroic  patience.  The  picture  of 
the  Jewish  doctor  is  a  most  characteristic  piece  of  work,  and  shows  Balzac's 
intimate  touch  in  every  line.  Balzac  was  always  attracted  by  the  mystical  side 
of  the  physical  nature  ;  and  it  might  almost  be  said  that  everything  that  savored 
of  mystery,  even  though  it  ran  obviously  into  quackery,  had  a  strong  attraction 
for  him.  He  pictures  Halpersohn  with  a  few  strokes,  but  his  picture  of  him  has 
a  striking  vitality  and  reality.  The  volume  is  a  valuable  and  attractive  addition  to 
the  series  to  which  it  belongs ;  and  the  series  comes  as  near  to  fulfilling  the  ideal 
of  what  translations  should  be  as  is  often  granted  to  earthly  things.  —  Boston 
Courier. 

The  book,  which  is  one  of  rare  charm,  is  one  of  the  most  refined,  while  at  the 
same  time  tragic,  of  all  his  works.  —  Public  Opinion. 

His  present  work  is  a  fiction  beautiful  in  its  conception,  just  one  of  those 
practical  ideals  which  Balzac  nourished  and  believed  in.  There  never  was  greater 
homage  than  he  pays  to  the  book  of  books,  "  The  Imitation  of  Jesus  Christ." 
Miss  Wormeley  has  here  accomplished  her  work  just  as  cleverly  as  in  her  other 
volumes  of  Balzac.  —  N.  Y.  Times. 


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Publishers^ 

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Messrs.  Roberts  Brothers'  Ptiblications, 


^KULKQ,   IN  ENGLISH. 


Lost  lUisions :  Tie  Two  Poets,  anfl  Eve  and  Davil 

By   HONORE   DE   BALZAC. 

Being  the  twenty-third  volume  of  Miss  Wormeley's  translation  of 
Balzac's  novels.     i2mo.     Half  Russia.     Price,  ^51.50. 

For  her  latest  translation  of  the  Balzac  fiction  cycle,  Miss  Wormeley  gives  us 
the  first  and  third  parts  of  "Illusion  Perdue,"  under  the  caption  of  "Lost 
Illusions,"  namely,  "The  Two  Poets"  and  "Eve  and  David."  This  arrange- 
ment is  no  doubt  a  good  one,  for  the  readers  are  thus  enabled  to  follow  the  consecu- 
tive fortunes  of  the  Angouleme  folk,  while  the  adventures  of  Eve's  poet-brother, 
Lucien,  which  occur  in  Paris  and  make  a  tale  by  themselves,  are  thus  left  for  a 
separate  publication.  The  novel,  as  we  have  it,  then,  belongs  to  the  category  of 
those  scenes  from  provincial  life  which  Balzac  found  so  stimulating  to  his  genius. 
This  story,  certainly,  in  some  respects  takes  high  rank  among  them.  The 
character-drawing  is  fine:  Lucien,  the  ambitious,  handsome,  weak-willed,  selfish, 
and  easily-sinning  young  bourgeois,  is  contrasted  with  David,  —  a  touching  picture 
of  the  struggling  inventor,  bom  of  the  people  and  sublimely  one-purposed  and 
fHire  in  his  life.  Eve,  the  type  of  a  faithful  large-brained  and  larger-hearted  wife, 
who  supports  her  husband  through  all  his  hardships  with  unfaltering  courage  and 
kindness,  is  another  noble  creation.  David  inherits  a  poorish  printing  business 
from  his  skin-flint  of  a  father,  neglects  it  while  devoting  all  his  time  and  energy  to 
his  discovery  of  an  improved  method  of  making  paper ;  and  through  the  evil 
machinations  of  the  rival  printing  firm  of  the  Cointets,  as  well  as  the  debts  foisted 
on  him  by  Lucien  in  Paris,  he  is  brought  into  money  difficulties  and  even  into 
prison.  But  his  invention,  although  sold  at  :i  sacrifice  to  the  cunning  Cointets, 
gets  him  out  of  the  hole  at  last,  and  he  and  his  good  wife  retire  on  a  comfortable 
competency,  which  is  augmented  at  the  death  of  his  father  into  a  good-sized 
fortune.  The  seamy  side  of  law  in  the  provinces  is  shown  up  in  Balzac's  keen, 
inimitable  way  in  the  description  of  the  winding  of  the  coils  around  the  unsuspect- 
ing David  and  the  depiction  of  such  men  as  the  brothers  Cointets  and  the  shrewd 
little  petifogging  rascal,  Petit  Claud.  The  pictures  of  Angouleme  aristocratic 
circles,  too,  with  Lucien  as  high  priest,  are  vivacious,  and  show  the  novelist's 
wonderful  observation  in  all  ranks  of  life.  The  bit  of  wild  romance  by  which 
Lucien  becomes  the  secretary  of  a  Spanish  grandee  lends  a  fairy-tale  flavor  to  tne 
main  episodes.  Balzac,  in  whom  is  united  the  most  lynx-eyed  realism  and  the 
most  extravagant  romanticism,  is  ever  and  always  one  of  the  great  masters  in 
fiction  of  our  century. 


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Messrs.  Robei'ts  Brothers'  Publications, 


BALZAC    IN    ENGLISH. 


A  Great  Mm  of  the  Provinces  in  Paris. 

By   HONORE    DE    BALZAC. 

Being  the  second  part  of  "  Lost  Illusions."     Translated  by  Kath- 
arine Prescott  Wormeley.     i2mo.     Half  Russia.     Price,  ^1.50. 

We  are  beginning  to  look  forward  to  the  new  translations  of  Balzac  by  Katha- 
rine Wormeley  almost  as  eagerly  as  to  the  new  works  of  the  best  contemporary 
writers.  But,  unlike  the  writings  of  most  novelists,  Balzac's  novels  cannot  be 
judged  separately.  They  belong  together,  and  it  is  impossible  to  understand  the 
breadth  and  depth  of  the  great  writer's  insight  into  human  life  by  reading  any 
one  volume  of  this  remarkable  series.  For  instance,  we  rise  from  the  reading  of 
this  last  volume  feeling  as  if  there  was  nothing  high  or  noble  or  pure  in  life.  But 
what  would  be  more  untrue  than  to  fancy  that  Balzac  was  unable  to  appreciate 
the  true  and  the  good  and  the  beautiful  1  Compare  *'  The  Lily  of  the  Valley  " 
or  *' Seraphita  "  or  **  Louis  Lambert"  with  "The  Duchesse  of  Langeais"  and 
"  Cousin  Bette,"  and  then  perhaps  the  reader  will  be  able  to  criticise  Balzac  with 
some  sort  of  justice.  —  Boston  Transcript. 

Balzac  paints  the  terrible  verities  of  life  with  an  inexorable  hand.  The  siren 
charms,  the  music  and  lights,  the  feast  and  the  dance,  are  presented  in  voluptu- 
ous colors —  but  read  to  the  end  of  the  book!  There  are  depicted  with  equal 
truthfulness  the  deplorable  consequences  of  weakness  and  crime.  Some  have 
read  Balzac's  "  Cousin  Bette  "  and  have  pronounced  him  immoral ;  but  when 
the  last  chapter  of  any  of  his  novels  is  read,  the  purpose  of  the  whole  is  clear,  and 
immorality  cannot  be  alleged.  Balzac  presents  life.  His  novels  are  as  truthful 
as  they  are  terrible.  —  Springfield  Union. 

Admirers  of  Balzac  will  doubtless  enjoy  the  mingled  sarcasm  and  keen  analy- 
sis of  human  nature  displayed  in  the  present  volume,  brought  out  with  even  more 
than  the  usual  amount  of  the  skill  and  energy  characteristic  of  the  author.  — 
Pittsburgh  Post. 

The  art  of  Balzac,  the  wonderful  power  of  his  contrast,  the  depth  of  his 
knowledge  of  life  and  men  and  things,  this  tremendous  story  illustrates.  How 
admirably  the  rise  of  the  poet  is  traced  ;  the  crescendo  is  perfect  in  gradation,  yet 
as  inexorable  as  fate!  As  for  the  fall,  the  effect  is  more  depressing  than  a 
personal  catastrophe.  This  is  a  book  to  read  over  and  over,  an  epic  of  life  in 
prose,  more  tremendous  than  the  blank  verse  of  *'  Paradise  Lost "  or  the 
"Divine  Comedy."  Miss  Wormeley  and  the  publishers  deserve  not  congratula- 
tions alone,  but  thanks  for  adding  this  book  and  its  predecessor,  "  Lost  Illusions," 
to  the  literature  of  English.  —  San  Francisco  Wave. 


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Messrs.  Roberts  Brothers  Publications. 

95al?ac  in  aEngli^lj* 

THE  VILLAGE  RECTOR. 

By  Honore  de  Balzac. 

Translated  by  Katharine  Prescott  Wormeley.     i2mo. 
Half  Russia.     Price,  ^1.50. 


Once  more  that  wonderful  acquaintance  which  Balzac  had  with  all  callings 
appears  manifest  in  this  work.  Would  you  get  to  the  bottom  of  the  engineer's 
occupation  in  France?  Balzac  presents  it  in  the  whole  system,  with  its  aspects, 
disadvanuges,  and  the  excellence  of  the  work  accomplished.  We  write  to-day 
of  irrigation  and  of  arboriculture  as  if  they  were  novelties  ;  yet  in  the  waste  lands 
of  Montagnac,  Balzac  found  these  topics ;  and  what  he  wrote  is  the  clearest 
exposition  of  the  subjects. 

But,  above  all,  in  "The  Village  Rector"  is  found  the  most  potent  of  religious 
ideas,  —  the  one  that  God  grants  pardon  to  sinners.  Balzac  had  studied  and 
appreciated  the  intensely  human  side  of  Catholicism  and  its  adaptiveness  to  the 
wants  of  mankind.  It  is  religion,  with  Balzac,  "  that  opens  to  us  an  inexhaustible 
treasure  of  indulgence."     It  is  true  repentance  that  saves. 

The  drama  which  is  unrolled  in  "  The  Village  Rector  "  is  a  terrible  one,  and 
perhaps  repugnant  to  our  sensitive  minds.  The  selection  of  such  a  plot,  pitiless 
as  it  is,  Balzac  made  so  as  to  present  the  darkest  side  of  human  nature,  and  to 
show  how,  through  God's  pity,  a  soul  might  be  saved.  The  instrument  of  mercy 
is  the  Rector  Bonnet,  and  in  the  chapter  entitled  "  The  Rector  at  Work  "  he 
shows  how  religion  "  extends  a  man's  life  beyond  the  world."  It  is  not  sufficient 
to  weep  and  moan.  "That  is  but  the  beginning;  the  end  is  action."  The 
rector  urges  the  woman  whose  sins  are  great  to  devote  what  remains  of  her  lif« 
to  work  for  the  benefit  of  her  brothers  and  sisters,  and  so  she  sets  about  reclaim^ 
ing  the  waste  lands  which  surround  her  chateau.  With  a  talent  of  a  suj)erlativo 
order,  which  gives  grace  to  Veronique,  she  is  like  the  Madonna  of  some  old  panel 
of  Van  Eyck'a  Doing  penance,  slie  wears  close  to  her  tender  skin  a  haircloth 
vestment  For  love  of  her,  a  man  has  committed  murder  and  died  and  kept  his 
secret.  In  her  youth,  Veronique's  face  had  been  pitted,  but  her  saintly  life  had 
obliterated  that  spotted  mantle  of  smallpox.  Tears  had  washed  out  every  blemish. 
If  through  true  repentance  a  soul  was  ever  saved,  it  was  Veronique's.  This 
work,  too,  has  afforded  consolation  to  many  miserable  sinners,  and  showed  them 
the  way  to  grace. 

The  present  translation  is  to  be  cited  for  its  wonderful  accuracy  and  its  literary 
distinction.  We  can  hardly  think  of  a  more  difficult  task  than  the  Englishing  of 
Balzac,  and  a  general  reading  public  should  be  grateful  for  the  admirable  manner 
in  which  Miss  Wormeley  has  performed  her  task.  — New  York  Tinus. 


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of  price  by  the  Publishers  ^ 

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Messrs.  Roberts  Brothers'  Publications, 


25al?ac  in  <txi^\$\^. 


Memoirs  of  Two  Young  Married  Women. 

By  Honore  de  Balzac. 

Translated  by  Katharine  Prescott  Wormeley.    i2mo. 
Half  Russia.     Price,  ^1.50. 


"There  are,"  says  Henry  James  in  one  of  his  essays,  "two  writers  In 
Balzac,  —  the  spontaneous  one  and  the  reflective  one,  the  former  of 
which  is  much  the  more  delightful,  while  the  latter  is  the  more  extraordi- 
nary." It  is  the  reflective  Balzac,  the  Balzac  with  a  theory,  whom  we 
get  in  the  "Deux  Jeunes  Mariees,"  now  translated  by  Miss  Wormeley 
under  the  title  of  "  Memoirs  of  Two  Young  Married  Women."  The 
theory  of  Balzac  is  that  the  marriage  of  convenience,  properly  regarded, 
is  far  preferable  to  the  marriage  simply  from  love,  and  he  undertakes  to 
prove  this  proposition  by  contrasting  the  careers  of  two  young  girls  who 
have  been  fellow-students  at  a  convent.  One  of  them,  the  ardent  and 
passionate  Louise  de  Chaulieu,  has  an  intrigue  with  a  Spanish  refugee, 
finally  marries  him,  kills  him,  as  she  herself  confesses,  by  her  perpetual 
jealousy  and  exaction,  mourns  his  loss  bitterly,  then  marries  a  golden- 
haired  youth,  lives  with  him  in  a  dream  of  ecstasy  for  a  year  or  so,  and 
this  time  kills  herself  through  jealousy  wrongfully  inspired.  As  for  hel 
friend,  Renee  de  Maucombe,  she  dutifully  makes  a  marriage  to  please  her 
parents,  calculates  coolly  beforehand  how  many  children  she  will  have  and 
how  they  shall  be  trained;  insists,  however,  that  the  marriage  shall  be 
merely  a  civil  contract  till  she  and  her  husband  find  that  their  hearts  are 
indeed  one ;  and  sees  all  her  brightest  visions  realized,  —  her  Louis  an 
ambitious  man  for  her  sake  and  her  children  truly  adorable  creatures. 
The  siory,  which  is  told  in  the  form  of  letters,  fairly  scintillates  with 
brilliant  sayings,  and  is  filled  with  eloquent  discourses  concerning  the 
nature  of  love,  conjugal  and  otherwise.  Louise  and  Ren6e  are  both 
extremely  sophisticated  young  women,  even  in  their  teens  ;  and  those 
who  expect  to  find  in  their  letters  the  demure  innocence  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  type  will  be  somewhat  astonished.  The  translation,  under  the 
circumstances,  was  rather  a  daring  attempt,  but  it  has  been  most  felicit- 
ously done.  —  The  Beacon. 


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